The death toll from the storm rose above 100 across the southeast on Sunday as authorities scrambled to airlift supplies, restore power and clear roads after heavy rains. helen People were stranded and without shelter.
Helen killed at least 116 people and caused widespread destruction, CBS News confirmed.
Buncombe County, North Carolina, one of the states hardest hit by the storm, reported 30 deaths.
Helen lost power to millions of customers. More than 2 million people remained without power early Monday, according to utility tracker Find Energy.
But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday night that power had been restored to 99% of homes and businesses in the state.
Helen crashed on the shore Florida’s Big Bend Area Thursday night is dangerous Category 4 Hurricane. Helen was the third hurricane to hit the area in the past 13 months.
From there it quickly moved through Georgia, and Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it looked like a bomb had gone off, seeing destroyed homes and debris-covered highways from above.
A weakened Helen then flooded the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending streams and rivers on both sides and straining dams.
Helen left at least 116 people dead across multiple states as the massive storm caused more than 600 miles of path of devastation.
In North Carolina, 46 people between the ages of 4 and 75 have died, officials confirmed to CBS News. One person died in a collision on a flooded road, and another died when a tree fell on the road, Gov. Roy Cooper said. According to the Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services Agency.
At least 25 people have died in Georgia, according to a Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokesperson. Kemp said earlier Friday that first responders were among the dead.
In South Carolina, 27 people were killed in the storm, authorities confirmed to CBS News. The dead included two firefighters and two people killed when a tree fell on a home.
In Florida, 13 people have died, including 10 in Pinellas County, authorities confirmed to CBS News. Across the state, crews have conducted thousands of rescues.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
“This is an unprecedented tragedy and requires an unprecedented response,” Cooper said at a news conference Sunday. He added that “we know there will be more deaths” as rescue teams reach isolated areas.
Four weather-related deaths were confirmed in Tennessee, one in Johnson County, one in Unicoi County and two in Cocke County.
In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin confirmed at a press conference Friday that one person had died.
The National Weather Service reported Saturday that Helen had the highest rainfall total of any state. Biswick, a rural community in northwestern North Carolina, received the most precipitation overall, with a whopping 30.78 inches so far.
FEMA Administrator DeAnne Criswell, who visited Florida on Saturday to assess the damage, said: Speaking on “Margaret Brennan and Face the Nation”“That “historic flood” north carolina This area turned out to be more than anyone had planned.
“No one can be completely prepared for the amount of flooding and landslides we’re experiencing right now,” she says.
Asheville, North Carolina, was particularly hard hit, with rising floodwaters damaging roads, causing power outages and disrupting cell phone service.
On Sunday, Cooper urged residents to avoid traveling on roadways in western North Carolina.
“Many people are cut off from transportation because the roads are impassable,” he said.
President Biden has declared states of emergency in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, freeing up federal resources for recovery and relief efforts. It will be.
The White House said more than 800 FEMA personnel have been sent to the area to assist with the response.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Moody’s Analytics predicted property damage would be between $15 billion and $26 billion. AccuWeather’s preliminary estimates put the total damage and economic losses caused by Helen in the United States between $95 billion and $110 billion.
Flooding was so severe in East Tennessee that two dams were at risk of failure. As a result, the city of Newport in Cocke County was evacuated, but both dams ultimately held out.
“Rescues have been made, attempts have been made and some people are stranded on the roofs of their homes,” Cocke County Sheriff CJ Ball said.
The Gulf Coast community of Keaton Beach, Florida, was still recovering from Idalia and Debbie when Helen showed up to deliver the knockout punch. Taylor County officials estimate that 90% of Keaton Beach’s homes are gone.
Farther south, in Cedar Key, officials say it is unsafe for residents and rescue workers.
Coast Guard crews performed a daring rescue mission off the coast of Sanibel Island, Florida, to rescue a man and his dog after their 36-foot yacht ran aground.
In the Big Bend fishing village of Steinhatchee, storm-weary residents prayed Helen would be gone, but the waterfront docks and restaurants that once stood there are now gone.
From Thomas Simonetti, The Washington Post, Getty Images
The building was blown off its foundation by the storm surge. Linda Wicker lost the restaurant she owned for 20 years. She seemed even more disturbed by what she saw around the village, houses torn apart by wind and deep water.
“If you think casually, you’re not going to get there,” Wicker says. “I can’t do it. That’s terrible.”
Roads were submerged and boats washed ashore in Tampa’s historic Davis Islands. One house was completely destroyed in the fire. Marie Terry, who lives next door, would also have stayed in the neighborhood had her daughter not insisted on evacuation.
“I’m just shocked,” Terry told CBS News. “It’s a beautiful house, but when you look at it like this, you wonder what happened to it.”
In Atlanta, apartment complexes were flooded and neighbors had to help each other. Sam Oni (83) was one of them.
“But I thought I could get away, but I didn’t… and I owe my neighbors a lot,” Oni told CBS News.
Sarasota Police Department (via Reuters)
Celina Rodriguez was asleep in her bed in her Atlanta home when she started floating, but it wasn’t a dream.
“There was water all around us, so it was like an island,” Rodriguez told CBS News. “…It was almost a nightmare. Yeah, it was insane. I couldn’t believe it, I was in shock the whole time. I had never experienced anything like this.”
One of them, Annie Sloan, said: CBS News Miami: “I live alone and basically my son came to take me to Georgia, so I decided to come to the shelter. But then I found out that the hurricane was coming to Georgia as well. My husband passed away, so I just decided to come here and take shelter. I don’t want to be home alone.”
Most gas stations in the Tallahassee area were closed or had no gasoline available. CBS News senior weather and climate producer David Parkinson described Helen as a “huge” storm.
NASA shared video of the hurricane seen from the International Space Station, showing the scale of the storm as it barreled through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday afternoon.
Unusually warm Gulf waters provide fuel for hurricanes
The Gulf’s record-warm waters almost certainly acted like jet fuel, intensifying the storm. Brian McNoldy, a senior research fellow at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Ocean, Atmospheric, and Earth Sciences, recently said: ocean heat It was the highest on record in the Gulf of Mexico. hot water It is a necessary ingredient to strengthen the tropical system.
Sea surface temperatures along Helen’s path were a warm 89 degrees Fahrenheit, two to four degrees above normal.
According to Climate Central, record water temperatures like these are becoming much more likely to be caused by human-induced climate change. The entire North Atlantic will reach record temperatures in 2024, storing 90% of the ocean’s excess heat. climate change produced by greenhouse gas pollution.
Helen is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1.
Ferran M. Ebenhack/Associated Press
Amy Pich, Lee Cohen
and Dave Malkoff contributed to this report.