From Reuters:
“Helene, one of largest storms
to hit the US, brings chaos to Florida and Georgia”
Helene roared through Florida and
Georgia under darkness on Friday as one of the most powerful storms to hit the
U.S., killing at least four people, swamping neighborhoods and leaving more
than 3 million homes and businesses without power. The Category 4 storm hit
Florida's Big Bend region at 11:10 p.m. ET (0310 Friday GMT), leaving a chaotic
landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, stranded cars and
flooded streets. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed the death of a
driver whose car was struck by debris and warned the death toll was likely to
rise. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said on X that two people in Wheeler County
had died after a tornado touched down during the storm, and an ABC News
affiliate reported that a firefighter was killed when a tree fell on his
vehicle in Blackshear, Georgia.
More than four million homes and
businesses in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and other U.S. Southeast states
were without power, according to the tracking website Poweroutage.us. Police
and firefighters carried out hundreds of water rescues throughout the states,
including as far north as Atlanta, where an apartment complex had to be
evacuated due to flooding.
Helene, which whipped Florida
with 140 mph (225 kph) winds when it came ashore, weakened to a tropical storm
as it moved into Georgia early on Friday. The still-powerful storm was packing
sustained maximum winds of 70 mph (113 kph) as of 5 a.m. and was forecast to
continue shuffling northward toward the Tennessee Valley. Life-threatening
storm surges, winds and heavy rains continued, the NHC said. The National
Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for several counties in Georgia,
South Carolina and North Carolina on Friday morning. "This is a
PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!" the service
said. Flood levels higher than 9 feet are possible along Florida’s west coast,
according to the National Hurricane Center. The extent of the damage in Florida
was starting to emerge after daybreak. In coastal Steinhatchee, a storm surge -
the wall of seawater pushed ashore by winds - of eight to 10 feet (2.4-3
meters) moved mobile homes, the NWS said on X. The city of Tampa posted on X
that emergency personnel had completed 78 water rescues of residents and that
many roads were impassable because of flood waters. The Pasco County sheriff's
office rescued more than 65 people overnight.
The U.S. Coast Guard said one of
its helicopter crews saved a man and his dog from the ocean on Thursday after
his sailboat became disabled off Sanibel Island. Officials had pleaded with
residents in Helene's path to heed evacuation orders, describing the the storm
surge was "unsurvivable," as NHC director Michaen Brennan warned. In
Taylor County, the Sheriff's Department wrote on social media that residents
who decided not to evacuate should write their names and dates of birth on
their arms in permanent ink "so that you can be identified and family
notified." Some residents were staying stubbornly put. "We're under
orders, but I'm going to stay right here at the house," state ferry boat
operator Ken Wood, 58, told Reuters before the storm from coastal Dunedin in
Florida, where he planned to ride out the storm with his 16-year-old cat Andy. Flood
levels higher than 9 feet are possible along Florida’s west coast, according to
the National Hurricane Center. Over the next five days, cumulative rainfall of
up to 10 inches is possible in parts of the Southeastern United States.
Helene was unusually large for a
Gulf hurricane, forecasters said, though a storm's size is not the same as its
strength, which is based on maximum sustained wind speeds. A few hours before
landfall, Helene's tropical-storm winds extended outward 310 miles, according
to the National Hurricane Center. By comparison, Idalia, another major
hurricane that struck Florida's Big Bend region last year, had tropical-storm
winds extending 160 miles about eight hours before it made landfall.
Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee
and St. Petersburg suspended operations on Thursday and remained closed early
on Friday. Hundreds of flights into and out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and
Atlanta were delayed or cancelled, according to the tracking website
FlightAware.com. National Hurricane Center advisory made on September 24 Reinsurance
broker Gallagher Re said preliminary private insurance losses could reach $3
billion to $6 billion, with additional losses to federal insurance programs
approaching a potential $1 billion.
^ I hope those affected get the
help they need. ^
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