At least 52 people dead and millions without power as Hurricane Helene sweeps US
A mass clear-up is underway after Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeast of the US, as Callum Fairhurst reports
Hurricane Helene has left at least 52 people dead in multiple states, levelling communities, and stranding many in floodwaters.
The monstrous Category 4 hurricane, with roaring 140 mph winds, has killed people in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.
Western North Carolina was effectively cut off because due to landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads.
Among those rescued from rising waters was nurse Janetta Barfield, whose car was swamped on Friday morning as she left an overnight shift at a hospital in the city of Asheville.
She said she watched a car in front of her drive through standing water and thought it was safe to proceed. But her car stalled, and within minutes water had filled her front seat up to her chest. A nearby police officer who saw her car stall helped her to safety.
“It was unbelievable how fast that creek got just in like five minutes," Ms Barfield said.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said more than 100 people were rescued from high waters, describing Helene as “one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of [the state].”
Meanwhile in rural Unicoi County, East Tennessee, dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from a hospital rooftop on Friday, after more than 50 people were stranded at the site surrounded by rapidly rising waters.
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.
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A TV weather reporter in Atlanta, Georgia interrupted a live broadcast on Hurricane Helene to rescue a woman trapped in her submerged vehicle.
Fox Weather meteorologist Bob Van Dillen was filmed wading towards the woman who was screaming for help after driving into floodwater near the Peachtree Creek.
He told viewers: "I'm going to go see if I can help this lady out a little bit more. You guys. I'll be back", before putting down his microphone.
Moments later, he was filmed striding back towards the camera with the woman clung to his back.
In an interview after the rescue, Mr Van Dillen said when he reached the car the woman was "still strapped in" while the water was almost neck deep.
The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Centre said.
The flooding it has created in North Carolina is the worst it has been in a century. In Atlanta, only car roofs peaked above flood waters in some neighbourhoods, with 11.12 inches of rain falling over 48 hours. That's the most the city has seen over two says since record keeping began in 1878.
power is out for nearly everyone in Perry, Florida, where cars started lining up before the sun rose on Saturday at a free food distribution site. Sierra Land said although her home seems to have dodged any major damage, with no electricity, she’s lost everything in her fridge.
“We’re making it one day at a time,” Land said as she arrived at the Convoy of Hope distribution site with her 5- and 10-year-old sons and her grandmother.
Thousands of utility crew workers descended upon Florida in advance of the hurricane, and by Saturday had restored power to more than 1.9 million homes and businesses.
However, hundreds of thousands remain without power there and in Georgia, where utilities urged patience.
“Unfortunately, treacherous conditions remain across the state with crews navigating extensive tree damage, persisting flooding conditions and many road closures,” Georgia Power, the state’s only private electric utility, said in a news release.
President Joe Biden on Saturday called the devastation caused by Helene “overwhelming” and said his administration was committed to helping the huge swathe of the Southeast impacted by the storm to recover.Helene is the deadliest tropical storm in South Carolina since Hurricane Hugo killed 35 people when it came ashore just north of Charleston in 1989. Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15bn (£11.2bn) to $26bn (£19.4bn) in property damage. AccuWeather’s preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Helene in the U.S. is between $95bn (£71bn) and $110bn (£82bn).Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.
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