Dozens dead as Helene unleashes life-threatening flooding and knocks out power to millions across Southeast

CNN

By Dalia Faheid, CNN

(CNN) — Helene continues to unleash its fury across the Southeast after leaving 49 people dead in multiple states, leveling communities and stranding many in floodwaters after the historic storm made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane with roaring 140 mph winds. Here’s the latest:

• Deaths across 5 states: Storm-related deaths have been reported in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. At least 19 are dead in South Carolina, including two firefighters who died in Saluda County, according to state officials. In Georgia, at least 15 people have died, two of them killed by a tornado in Alamo, according to a spokesperson for Gov. Brian Kemp. Florida officials reported eight deaths, including several people who drowned in Pinellas County. Six more deaths were reported in North Carolina and they include a car wreck on a storm-slick road that left a 4-year-old girl dead. And in Craig County, Virginia, one person died in a storm-related tree fall and building collapse, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday.

• Storm rescue missions underway: Nearly 4,000 National Guardsmen were conducting rescue efforts in 21 counties across Florida, the Defense Department said Friday. North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama have also activated guardsmen. The Biden administration has also mobilized more than 1,500 federal personnel to support communities affected by Helene, Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday.

• Severe flooding in North Carolina: Helene “is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. Western parts of the state were slammed by heavy rains and strong winds bordering on hurricane-strength levels, life-threatening flash flooding, numerous landslides and power outages. More than 100 people were rescued from high waters, the governor said. More than 2 feet of rain fell in the state’s mountainous region from Wednesday morning to Friday morning, with Busick recording a total of 29.58 inches in just 48 hours. In the hard-hit city of Asheville, a citywide curfew is in effect until 7:30 a.m. Saturday, officials said. About 20 miles southwest of Asheville, overwhelming, torrential rainfall was pushing the Lake Lure Dam into “imminent failure,” according to the National Weather Service.

• The threat isn’t over: Helene’s remnants will continue to bring rain and gusty winds over hundreds of miles of the East. Multiple states have recorded more than a foot of rain, with at least 14 different flash flood emergencies issued for approximately 1.1 million people in the Southern Appalachians of Western North Carolina and adjacent parts of Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia. In addition to the rainfall, winds continued to gust 30 to 50 mph over the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions Friday evening and more than 35 million people were under wind alerts heading into Saturday.

• More than 3 million left without power: The remnants of Helene continued to knock out power for several states across the eastern US on Saturday morning, with nearly 3.3 million customers left in the dark in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

• Helene disrupts travel and delivery services: Helene has caused numerous disruptions to travel and delivery services. Several Amtrak trains arriving or departing Florida and Georgia have been canceled, the company said. Delivery services were also impacted, with UPS announcing it has suspended service to Florida, North Carolina and Georgia because of the storm. FedEx likewise suspended or limited its service in five states. Water inundated countless roadways across the region, making them impassable. In North Carolina, 290 roads were closed throughout the state, and Gov. Roy Cooper said the state’s transportation department is shutting down even more roadways as severe flooding, landslides and washed-out roads pose serious threats to public safety.

• Dozens rescued from hospital roof in Tennessee: More than 50 people stranded on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, were rescued after rapidly rising waters from Helene made evacuation impossible Friday morning, Ballad Health said. Nearby, residents in three counties surrounding the Nolichucky Dam were urged to “move to higher ground” due to its imminent failure from Helene’s soaking rainfall, according to officials. If the dam fails, flooding can result in “an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the National Weather Service said.

• Helene is now a post-tropical cyclone: Helene – the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region – is now a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 35 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. That means Helene no longer has an organized center of circulation and is losing its hurricane-like features. But this change doesn’t alter much of Helene’s overall threat going forward, as Helene will continue to unleash heavy, flooding rainfall and gusty winds. Keith Turi of FEMA warned residents of the dangers remaining from Helene even after it passes. “There are a lot of dangers in those floodwaters, things you can see and sometimes things you can’t see that are going under the surface, and so really you need to stay out of those floodwaters,” Turi told CNN.

Florida and Georgia communities devastated

Helene cut a massive path of destruction across Florida, Georgia and the Southeastern US, snapping trees and power lines, and mangling hundreds of homes. As millions were left without essentials like electricity and some with nowhere to return to after the ravaging storm, rescue crews set out to save people trapped in wreckage or underwater.

In Cedar Key, Florida, the devastation is so widespread that it’s not safe enough to allow residents or volunteers back into the small community off the Florida coast, city officials said Friday. The town doesn’t have any sewage water or power, “so there’s really not a whole lot to be able to sustain people being here,” Cedar Key Mayor Sue Colson said.

Scores of historical buildings and new homes have been decimated, while roads were blocked by downed wires and “extremely dangerous” debris, the mayor said. “It’s just a multifaceted mess,” Colson said.

Another small, tight-knit Florida community, Keaton Beach, is picking up the pieces of their lives left behind by the ravages of Helene.

“You look at Keaton Beach … almost every home was destroyed, or the vast majority, and some totally obliterated. It’s because they had such a massive surge that went in there,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday, adding that the storm surge might have been as high as 20 feet.

The town’s Beach Bums gas station was three days away from celebrating the five-year anniversary of its opening when it collapsed, said owner Jared Hunt, who spent the morning helping residents look for personal belongings, salvaging what’s left.

One Keaton Beach resident stood with his wife in front of the wreckage of what used to be their home, wondering where they might go next.

“Man, I just lost my house. I have nowhere else to go,” Eric Church told CNN. “My house is laying here in a pile. It was sitting right there. There are just pillars left in the ground. I got a wife and two dogs with me. What am I supposed to do?”

Church’s wife, Erin Peelar, said the couple had just purchased the home and expected some water from the hurricane, not for the house “to disappear.”

“The house has been here for 75 years and that’s the whole reason we bought it six months ago, having faith it would be here for another 75,” Peelar said.

In the ocean off of Sanibel Island, Florida, US Coast Guard swimmer Ted Hudson, rescued a man and his dog from their house boat during the hurricane as dangerous waves threatened their lives.

Footage of the dramatic rescue captured by Hudson’s helmet camera shows Hudson being hoisted down from a helicopter battling to stay still amid 60 mph winds, until he enters the water. He then swims through terrifying waves to reach the stranded man and his dog. They enter the water and swim toward Hudson, who assists them as they are airlifted into the helicopter.

“I think my adrenaline kicked in, and I was just going,” Hudson told CNN. “It was a dangerous situation to be in, and I was trying to get out of there as fast as possible.”

DeSantis said he believes Hurricane Helene inflicted more damage than Hurricane Idalia in 2023, which at the time was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region in more than 125 years.

Hurricane Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, on Thursday night as a Category 4 with 140 mph sustained winds and higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. In comparison, Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained wind speeds of 125 mph.

Over in Georgia, multiple people were trapped after at least 115 structures in the southern city of Valdosta in Lowndes County were heavily damaged by Helene, Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday.

“The damage to our community is substantial and appears much worse than Hurricane Idalia,” the Lowndes County Emergency Management said on its Facebook page.

‘Complete pandemonium’ amid North Carolina floodwaters

Residents of Asheville, North Carolina, described “complete pandemonium” in their city after Helene brought several feet of floodwater and pushed large debris into streets overnight.

Samuel Hayes said he woke up with several calls from his employees telling him about fallen trees on their roofs, water pouring into their homes and mudslides.

“Complete pandemonium around the city,” Hayes told CNN’s Isabel Rosales. “It’s going to take us a long time to clean this up.”

Hayes and another Asheville native, Maxwell Kline, described the River Arts District neighborhood as being inundated with oil-contaminated floodwaters.

“A lot of businesses are completely wrecked … I’ve never seen anything like that since I’ve lived here. It’s absolutely a tragedy,” Kline said.

Gas pumps were down and they lost power, internet and cell phone service for hours, they said. “Can’t get anything right now – no food you can buy, no gas, nothing,” Kline said.

About 25 miles outside of Asheville, a lifelong resident of Hendersonville said she was traumatized by the onslaught of Helene. “I never knew anything like this could happen here,” Avery Dull, 20, told CNN.

Dull and her neighbors were “extremely unprepared” for the deluge, and she saw at least one person busting out of their window, she said. But her apartment is still intact because it’s on the second floor, Dull said.

“Luckily we were on high ground, but those people lost everything,” Dull said. “Half of my neighborhood is underwater and dozens of families are trapped inside of their homes. Cars have been completely submerged and totaled, and power is out across the county.”

Elsewhere in North Carolina, shattered glass, rocks and mud covered one couple’s car after a landslide triggered by Helene came crashing down onto Interstate 40 as they were driving through Black Mountain.

Kelly Keffer said her husband saw something coming from the corner of his eye and then they started to hear pounding on top of the car, so he stepped on the gas. Then, the whole side of the mountain started sliding, Alan Keffer said. Alan thought they would be able to speed past it, but it slid faster than he thought.

Within less than a minute, “the rocks, the dirt, everything hit us. It was scary,” he said. The back window was completely shattered, Kelly said.

In Erwin, Tennessee –  just over 40 miles north of Asheville, North Carolina – flooding submerged houses, buildings and roadways.

Erwin resident Nathan Farnor said he evacuated the area on Friday afternoon, when his home was slightly above water level, then he fled to an area a few miles away that is at higher ground.

“The power remains out, and it appears that most businesses, homes, and campgrounds near the river have suffered a total loss,” Farnor said, “Sadly, the situation does not appear to be improving.”

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CNN’s Emma Tucker, Elise Hammond, Ashley R. Williams, Taylor Ward, Taylor Romine, Mary Gilbert, Brandon Miller, Alaa Elassar, Nicole Chavez, Josh Replogle, Isabel Rosales, Taylor Galgano, Caroll Alvarado, Sara Smart, Andy Rose and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.