Hurricane Helene weakens to tropical storm after leaving dozens dead in trail of destruction across four US states
In short:
Ex-hurricane Helene has wreaked Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas in the south-eastern United States, causing loss of life and widespread property damage.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attributed just one death to Helene on Thursday, but that number rose to 33 overnight as bodies were discovered.
What's next?
It has now been downgraded to a tropical depression, but authorities say the risk of life-threatening storm surges remains.
Hurricane Helene has roared through Florida and into Georgia as one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the United States, killing at least 33 people, swamping neighbourhoods and leaving more than 4 million homes and businesses without power.
Helene made landfall as a category four storm at about 11:10pm on Thursday night, local time, and left a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbours, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets in Florida's Big Bend region.
It weakened to a tropical storm as it moved into Georgia early on Friday and then down to a tropical depression over Tennessee and Kentucky, but brought life-threatening flooding in its wake.
Authorities said thousands of rescues were carried out throughout the affected states, including in Atlanta and the Carolinas, which were swamped by rising floodwaters.
In Pinellas County, which sits on a peninsula surrounded by Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, roads were filling with rainwater before noon, while videos showed ocean water rising over boat docks.
In an early-morning update, the NHC said Helene had weakened to a tropical storm as it moved northward into Georgia, with winds gusting to a top speed of about 110kph — though the risk of life-threatening storm surges and heavy rains remained.
Two Tampa residents hold hands as they cross a flooded street together.
The storm was about 65km east of Macon and 165km south-east of Atlanta at 5am, local time, the NHC said, and was moving northward at about 48kph.
Helene is tied as the 14th most powerful hurricane to hit anywhere in the US since records have been kept, and is the seventh most powerful to slam into Florida, according to data from the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Even before its arrival, bringing winds of up to 225 kilometres per hour, the storm caused power outages for more than 1 million customers, as well as severe flooding in several parts of the southern state.
Deaths confirmed across four states
Officials had pleaded with residents in Helene's path to heed evacuation orders, describing the storm surge as "unsurvivable", as NHC Director Michael Brennan warned.
Pinellas County authorities said at least five people had been found dead on Friday.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said two others had died in his state. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp cited 11 storm-related fatalities so far, while North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said there had been two deaths in his state.
At least 13 people had died during the storm across South Carolina, the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper reported, citing local officials.
A moving satellite image of a hurricane moving over the coast of Florida.
The storm surge had been forecast to reach five to six metres in the Big Bend area of the Panhandle region where Helene came ashore.
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 had stubbornly stayed put.
Numerous evacuations were ordered along Florida's Gulf Coast, including Sarasota and Charlotte counties.
Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and St Petersburg all suspended operations, and energy facilities along the Gulf Coast scaled back operations and evacuated some production sites.
A satellite image shows Hurricane Helene churning through the Gulf of Florida.
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, said at a White House briefing that she would travel to Florida on Friday to assess the damage.
In coastal Dunedin, about 40 kilometres west of Tampa, state ferry boat operator Ken Wood, 58, said he planned to ride out the storm with his 16-year-old cat, Andy.
"We're under orders, but I'm going to stay right here at the house," Mr Wood told Reuters by telephone.
Many, though, heeded the mandatory evacuation orders that stretched from the Panhandle south along the Gulf Coast in low-lying areas around Tallahassee, Gainesville, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa and Sarasota.
Vera Kelly, of Tallahassee, evacuated to a hurricane shelter with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren on Thursday.
Among them were Cindy Waymon and her husband, who went to a shelter in Tallahassee after securing their home and packing medication, snacks and drinks.
They wanted to stay safe given the magnitude of the storm, she said.
"This is the first time we've actually come to a shelter, because of the complexities of the storm and the uncertainties," she said.
Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1. It 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.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.
ABC/wires
By：https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-27/hurricane-helene-makes-landfall-in-florida/104405652(责任编辑：admin)
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