Hurricane Helene has finally dissipated—but not after causing mass damage across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and parts of other states including Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. The storm hit the “Big Bend” region of Florida late last week with 140 mph winds, making it the strongest on record to strike the area. It then brought unprecedented flooding to Appalachia where it struck as a tropical storm.
The storm dumped between 12 and 16 inches of rain across these states.
According to The Associated Press, more than 100 people have died because of the storm, with 30 people dying in Asheville, NC, alone. That number is expected to rise as many areas of the state remain unreachable due to collapsed roads and “widespread flooding.” Asheville’s water system has also been “severely damaged.”
In an advisory, Visit North Carolina said, “state and local officials strongly advise all motorists avoid travel in Western North Carolina due to the continued risk of flash flooding, landslides, damaging debris flows, slope failures, riverine flooding and downed trees. Power and cell phone service outages are also widespread.
“Visitors should not travel into the mountains and should call their travel provider to confirm alternative travel plans, including reservations with lodging providers and heed any guidance from local officials. If you cannot reach your travel provider, you should consider them to be unavailable and delay your trip until you have confirmation they are open and ready to welcome visitors.”
Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, said that the storm “spared no one,” while Florda’s Ron DeSantis said there was “complete obliteration,” CNN reported.
PowerOutage.us reports that nearly 2 million people across the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Virginia are without power. Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio all also have at least 10,000 outages. The damage from the storm will likely top $100 billion, according to BBC.
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