PERRY, Florida – Authorities airlifted supplies and restored communications and roads to flooded Asheville, North Carolina, on Sunday as residents of the hurricane-ravaged Florida coast gathered for church services. Hurricane Helen debris,
Heavy rain from powerful Helen has left people stranded without shelter and waiting for rescue in the US Southeast.
Clean-up work to deal with the storm continued on Sunday. At least 64 people diedWidespread destruction occurred throughout the southeastern states and several million people lost power.
As the sun rose over Big Bend, Florida on Sunday Hurricane Helen devastated the areaMany houses of worship were still dealing with power outages, damaged roofs and storm debris – and also knew that many of their congregations were suffering another blow from the devastating storm.
More than 1,000 miles away in Texas, Jessica Dry Turner pleaded for someone to rescue her family members trapped on their roof in Asheville, N.C., surrounded by rising flood waters.
“They’re seeing 18 wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post Friday.
But in a follow-up message, which circulated widely on social media on Saturday, Turner said help had not arrived in time to save her 70-year-old parents and her six-year-old nephew.
The roof had collapsed and all three drowned.
“I cannot put into words the grief, heartbreak and devastation that my sisters and I are going through, nor can I imagine the pain that lies ahead,” she wrote.
Helene came ashore in the Big Bend area of Florida late Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 mph.
From there, it moved rapidly through Georgia, where Governor Brian Kemp said Saturday that it looked like a “bomb had gone off” after seeing wind-blown homes and debris-covered highways.
Weakening, Helene drenched the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, causing creeks and rivers to overflow their banks and strain dams.
Mudslides and flooding left much of western North Carolina isolated, forcing the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads.
Hundreds of water rescues have taken place, none more dramatic than the one in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff Lifted by helicopter from hospital roof Friday.
And rescue efforts continued the next day in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where part of Asheville was under water.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm is expected to loom over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday.
It caused the worst flooding in North Carolina in a century. One community, Spruce Pine, was inundated with more than 2 feet of rain from Tuesday to Saturday.
In Big Bend, Florida, some people lost almost everything, coming out of the storm without even a pair of shoes.
Sanctuaries were still in the dark in the county, where as of Sunday morning, 97% of customers were without power, with some churches canceling regular services while others, like Faith Baptist Church in Perry, opted to worship outside.
Standing water and tree debris still cover the grounds of Faith Baptist Church. The church called on parishioners to “pray for our community” in a message posted on the congregation’s Facebook page.
“There is still no electricity or water – so bathrooms will be unavailable. We have chairs, or you can bring your own chairs!” reads the post.
In Atlanta, 11.12 inches of rain fell in 48 hours, the most rainfall the city has seen in two days since record-keeping began in 1878.
President Joe Biden said Saturday that Helen’s devastation had been “enormous” and promised to send help. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, making federal funding available for affected individuals.
With at least 25 deaths in South Carolina, Helene is the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.
Deaths have also been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
Moody’s Analytics said it expected property losses of $15 billion to $26 billion. AccuWeather’s initial estimate of the total damage and economic losses from Helene in the US is between $95 billion and $110 billion.
Evacuations began before the storm and continued as lakes overflowed dams, including one in North Carolina that created the lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing.” Helicopters were used to rescue some people from flooded houses.
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the 11 deaths in Florida include nine people who drowned in their homes in a mandatory evacuation zone on the Gulf Coast in Pinellas County.
None of the victims were from Taylor County, where the storm made landfall. It came ashore near the mouth of the Osilla River, about 20 miles northwest of where Hurricane Idalia struck last year, at about the same intensity.
Taylor County, located in the Big Bend of Florida, was not directly impacted by the hurricane for several years. But after Idalia and two other hurricanes in a little more than a year, the region is beginning to feel like a hurricane superhighway.
“It’s bringing everyone back to reality about what disasters mean now,” said John Berg, 76, a resident of Steinhatchee, a small fishing town and weekend getaway.
Climate change has increased the conditions that allow such storms to flourish, rapidly intensifying over warm waters and sometimes turning into powerful cyclones in a matter of hours.
Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting an above-average season this year due to record-warm ocean temperatures.
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