ASHEVILLE, N.C. – About 2.3 million people were without power across the Southeast on Sunday in the wake of Hurricane Helen, including more than 460,000 people in North Carolina, whose homes were shattered by the storm. , residents were trapped, landslides occurred and communities were submerged in severe flooding.
The record-breaking storm hit Florida’s Big Bend on Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 miles per hour, then weakened to a tropical storm as it moved north through Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas, and has since weakened to a tropical storm in multiple states. Dozens of people died.
On Sunday, North Carolina officials were still trying to understand the level of devastation. At least 11 people have died in the devastated state, and “tragically we know many more will die,” Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference.
Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said more than 1,000 people have been reported missing through the county’s online portal, but she expects that number to drop dramatically once cell phone service is restored. Ta. Mr Pinder said rescue teams were “still trying to save every single person we can” in hard-hit areas.
Hundreds of roads were washed away, cell phone service was cut off for more than 250,000 people, and vast cities like Asheville were submerged under water. Cooper said Helen was “one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina.”
Officials said earlier that more than 200 people had been rescued in the state by water and helicopter crews.
Buncombe County Emergency Services Deputy Director Ryan Cole said the debris was overwhelming. “We’re seeing Biblical devastation throughout the county. We’re having a Biblical flood here,” Cole said.
Power has returned to many parts of North Carolina, but drivers are blocking repair efforts.
Cooper said the number of customers without power has fallen from more than 1 million to 464,000, and efforts are underway to restore cell phone service to thousands of people without power.
At an afternoon news conference, state officials said residents driving in storm-ravaged areas were hampering relief and repair efforts and urged people to stay home.
“Travel in Western North Carolina remains restricted and dangerous,” Cooper said, noting 280 roads are closed, including portions of Interstate 40 and Interstate 26. did. โStay off the roads in Western North Carolina.โ
The governor said Helen dumped between 10 and 29 inches of rain on some mountains in the state, resulting in life-threatening landslides and flooding. As a result, up to 1,000 people are reported missing, and some of their loved ones are searching for them.
“I know a lot of people are worried about relatives and friends they can’t reach,” Cooper said. “That’s one of the reasons why we’re so focused on restoring communication, because we know that many of these people are just not communicating and that’s OK. Because it is.โ
Asheville bears the brunt of ‘heartbreaking’ devastation
Authorities in western North Carolina continued to search for flood victims Sunday.
Asheville Police Chief Michael Lamb said the department has a list of about 60 people who have relatives who could not be reached. His department organized “welfare checks” at their homes to check on these people.
Helen wiped out much of Asheville, including the beloved River Arts District businesses.
The River Link Bridge, which overlooks the district, is the central gateway between downtown and west Asheville, and has become a rallying point of sorts as residents reel from the historic damage caused by Helen. On Saturday, France’s Broad River was still more than 17 feet above its levees, NOAA said.
Erin Quevedo, owner of Balm Salon on Depot Street, sank ankle-deep in mud to try to salvage what she could of her business.
“The salon was completely destroyed. It looks like water got inside about five feet,” Quevedo said. Along with her, five hairdressers worked at the salon.
“Right now, all we’re doing is trying to save what we can,” she said, noting that only a small amount could be saved, such as hair styling tools. “It’s really heartbreaking. I have no idea what I’m going to do. I think I’ll just take it one step at a time.”
A scramble for survival: Asheville family flees by boat, with no time to put on their shoes and fearing losing everything.
Homes and roads were destroyed on the Tennessee-North Carolina border.
ERWIN, Tenn. – Parts of Tennessee’s eastern Appalachian Mountains near the North Carolina border were clear on Sunday about the damage from Helen’s deluge, with washed out bridges, road closures, destroyed buildings and some residents without power. It became clear.
Unicoi County officials said Sunday that it could take weeks to restore power to the county. Some residents said they still had relatives missing.
At a church shelter in Greenville run by the Red Cross, volunteers made pancakes early Sunday for several people who had been forced from their homes and were still sleeping on cots. In Irwin, a town of about 6,000 people, people affected by the storm flocked to the local high school, which was serving as a shelter, seeking hot food, bottled water and clothing. Many were trying to figure out what to do next.
โ Chris Kenning
More than 2 feet of rain swamp in North Carolina mountains
By the time Helen arrived in Florida Thursday night, a rare confluence of weather patterns in the eastern United States had dumped more than two feet of rain in North Carolina’s mountains in recent days.
Tiny Busick in Yancey County, along the western border with Tennessee, recorded 29.58 inches in just 48 hours. In Asheville, record high water levels were recorded on the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers near the Biltmore estate. The nearby historic Biltmore Village was nearly submerged after Helen broke through the area, according to aerial footage.
At least 5,000 emergency calls to 911 have been made since Thursday. Helen’s heavy rains also left more than 200 North Carolinians in need of rescue, with local, state and federal authorities mobilizing to help. Click here for details.
โ Josh Meyer and Dinah Boyles Pulver
Thousands of National Guard troops deployed
Thousands of National Guard troops were mobilized for search and rescue efforts and debris removal after Hurricane Helen struck the Southeast.
The majority of the National Guard was deployed to Florida, where 3,900 National Guard troops were stationed in 21 counties, providing humanitarian relief and security, clearing debris and rescuing residents from rising waters.
Hundreds more were activated in Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee, where Guard members rescued 50 patients and staff from a Unicoi County hospital trapped by extreme flooding.
Madison County, Florida residents remember Helen’s horror
Hurricane Helen made landfall Thursday around 11:10 p.m., just east of the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 40 minutes south of Madison County, Florida.
Kenneth Butler’s home had just been repaired after being damaged by Hurricane Idalia last year, but strong winds ripped off the roof. During Helen’s call Thursday, he said, “It sounded like someone was grabbing a piece of tin and throwing it all over the place.”
Because of the storm, the house was flooded. All he and his family could hear was the sound of the train whistle.
Doreen Gross and the five grandchildren who live with her didn’t stand a chance. Gross said her boss had a vacant, furnished house and was thinking of selling it and living there until the storm hit.
But the strong walls of the house did not protect them from the howling wind. “The whole house was shaking and (the kids) were all scared,” Gross said. โWe were all huddled together.โ
Gross said it was the scariest thing she had ever seen. And she survived Category 5 Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Looking outside Thursday night was like watching a scene from “The Wizard of Oz,” she said.
โ Elena Barrera, Tallahassee Democrat
Biden explains the impact of Hurricane Helen
President Joe Biden signed a major disaster declaration for North Carolina and ordered federal aid to supplement local recovery efforts. Biden also approved emergency disaster relief for Tennessee as local officials warned that Greene County’s Nolichucky Dam was at risk of failure and urged nearly 100,000 residents to seek higher ground. did. Hours later, the National Weather Service lifted the “flash flood emergency,” but a flood warning was still in effect.
The White House said FEMA Administrator DeAnne Criswell is scheduled to visit Georgia on Sunday and North Carolina on Monday to “accelerate recovery efforts” in North Carolina and provide assistance to survivors. It is part of the government’s efforts to accelerate and increase the number of search and rescue teams.
How many deaths did Helen cause? How many people are without power?
Reuters reported on Sunday that Helen had killed at least 69 people in multiple states.
The worst power outages in Helen were in South Carolina, where nearly 1 million homes and businesses lost power, according to PowerOutage.us. 680,000 people were without power in Georgia. Approximately 460,000 people were without power in North Carolina. Officials have warned that it will take several days for service to be fully restored.
Why was Helen so destructive?
Forecasters began warning last Tuesday that a combination of weather patterns was likely to cause flooding in the area. The forward overhead was about to interact with the plume of moisture being drawn in ahead of Helen.
David Easterling, a rain expert with NOAA’s National Climate Assessment Technical Assistance Unit, said the rain “started well in advance of the storm, rain started falling from the Gulf Coast to our region, and the circulation around the storm made it very difficult.” “Moisture was pushed up from the warm Gulf waters.” .
This interaction with wetlands that occurs before a tropical cyclone or hurricane is called an antecedent event, and has been recorded in the past to cause heavy rainfall prior to the arrival of a tropical cyclone or hurricane. Jet stream winds blowing aloft at more than 115 mph provided lift and added moisture to the developing storm.
Along North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, about 10 inches of rain fell in Asheville and about 8 inches in Tryon on Wednesday and Thursday, according to preliminary weather service data. Six more people fell in two days in Bristol-Johnson, Tenn., and more than 4 inches fell in Knoxville.
-Dina Boyles Pulver
Is there another storm brewing in the Atlantic?
With two months left in hurricane season, all eyes are on the Atlantic Ocean.
Tropical Storm Joyce, which formed in the mid-Atlantic on Friday, was about 975 miles east of the Leeward Islands on Sunday and was expected to become a depression on Monday. There was no threat of landing.
Hurricane Isaac was about 575 miles northwest of the Azores and moving through the open Atlantic Ocean, hurricane officials said. There was also currently no threat to land.
But the National Hurricane Center’s 8 a.m. Tropical Weather Outlook on Sunday said there was a 50 percent chance of another system forming in the Caribbean and Gulf Coast between Tuesday and next weekend.
Contributor: Michael Loria and Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY