Hurricane Helene Leaves 33 Dead as It Devastates Southeastern U.S.
Hurricane Helene brought life-threatening flooding on Friday to wide sections of the southeastern United States, where at least 33 people have been killed by a storm that swamped neighborhoods, triggered mudslides, threatened dams, and left more than 4 million homes and businesses without power.
In Tennessee, fears that a dam would fail near the city of Newport prompted officials to order the evacuation of the downtown area. Another dam in North Carolina was on the brink of failure, raising concerns of further devastation.
Before moving north through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday at 11:10 p.m. ET, packing winds of 225 kilometers per hour. The storm left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars, and flooded streets.
As of early Friday afternoon, the storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. However, Helene’s heavy rains were still producing catastrophic flooding in many areas, with police and firefighters carrying out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states.
More than 50 people were trapped on the roof of a hospital at midday on Friday in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 190 kilometers northeast of Knoxville, as floodwaters swamped the rural community. State officials later reported that those people were safely rescued.
Rising waters from the Nolichucky River prevented ambulances and emergency vehicles from evacuating patients and others, according to the Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency. Emergency crews in boats and helicopters conducted rescues amid the rising floodwaters.
Elsewhere in Tennessee, Rob Mathis, the mayor of Cocke County, reported that the Walters dam “has suffered a catastrophic failure,” prompting the evacuation of the downtown area of the nearby city of Newport, home to 36,000 people. However, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency later stated that the Walters dam, located just across the state line in North Carolina, had not failed, citing information from Duke Energy, which operates the dam.
Madison McDonald, a Duke Energy spokesperson, commented, “We are aware of the situation and we’re sorting out the facts.”
In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam to immediately evacuate to higher ground, stating that a dam failure was imminent. In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced the closure of Interstates 40 and 26, according to county officials.
As communities across the southeastern U.S. grapple with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, emergency services continue to work tirelessly to rescue those affected and to assess the full extent of the damage.
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At least 33 dead as Helene cuts path through southeastern U.S.
cgtn.com
