At least 42 dead after Hurricane Helene tore through the southern United States
At least 42 deadstreets flooded by unprecedented storm surge, damage to buildings and more than four million people without power is the barren skyline of the southeastern United States, after the arrival of Helene as a Category 4 hurricane.
In the southeastern United States, where Helene continued its destructive path as a tropical storm after entering the west coast of Florida, more than four million homes and offices are without power, according to the specialist website PowerOutage.
The hurricane made landfall shortly after 11:00 p.m. local time Thursday (03:00 GMT Friday) near the town of Perry in the region of northwest Florida known as Big Bend, with maximum sustained winds of 145 miles per hour.
The area woke up today with streets covered in trees and fallen polesin addition, in areas inundated by the rising tide (at least 3 meters above its normal level) brought with it by Helene, which meteorologists say is the strongest hurricane to hit the Big Bend.
Videos and photos show large waves hitting bridges and homes in coastal areas that were nearly submerged during the cyclone’s passage.
In the Cedar Key area, near where Helene made landfall and where sea levels rose 2.7 meters overnight, Patrols began clearing trees from major roads at dawn to keep lifeguards flowing.
More than this Friday so far 700 flights were canceled in the USthe vast majority of them with scheduled departures or arrivals at Charlotte (North Carolina), Atlanta (Georgia) and Tampa (Florida) international airports.
Although Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, was spared the feared direct hit as the system moved further east, other major cities such as Atlanta, Georgia, remain under a state of emergency due to flash flooding in their metropolitan area, the NHC detailed .
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens noted At least twenty people were rescued overnight after being trapped inside homes or cars amid flooding.
That state’s governor, Brian Kemp, said today that several hospitals in the south of the state had lost power and that rescue teams were heading east, where several residents were trapped in their homes.
In anticipation of Helena’s trajectory, between Thursday and Friday, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, signed disaster declarations for the states of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama.
River flooding is expected to reach record highs in the Asheville, North Carolina area, where evacuation orders are in effect, and landslides are also possible in mountainous areas of western North Carolina.
In its latest bulletin, the United States’ National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Helene was still producing “damaging wind gusts and potentially life-threatening flooding in several parts of the southeastern and southern Appalachians.”
As it continues to move over land, the system continues to weaken and now has maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour and is moving rapidly north at 52 kilometers per hour.
(With information from EFE)