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Hurricane Helene left an enormous path of destruction across Florida and the southeastern U.S. on Friday, killing at least 40 people in four states
Tangled piles of nail-spiked lumber and displaced boats littered the streets. A house lay crushed under a fern-covered oak tree toppled by the winds. Residents waded or paddled through ruddy floodwaters, hoping to find their loved ones safe, and rescue crews used fan boats to evacuate stranded people in bathrobes or wrapped in blankets.
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Authorities on Friday were trying to get a handle on Hurricane Helene‘s extreme swath of destruction, which stretched across Florida, Georgia, and much of the southeastern U.S. on Friday, leaving at least 40 people dead in four states and millions without power.
Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year because of record warm ocean temperatures.
The Category 4 hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) and made landfall late Thursday where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet, a rural region home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways.
Floodwaters inundated cars and buildings, and the winds ripped the roofs off businesses, houses, and churches. Faith Cotto and her mother, Nancy, stood outside and mourned the loss of their brick home in St. Petersburg, Florida, to another fate: Amid so much water, it burned.
A Coast Guard crew in a helicopter rescued a man and his dog after his sailboat became disabled 25 miles (40 kilometers) off southwestern Florida. Firefighters carried children across floodwaters in Crystal River, north of Tampa.
But the damage reached much farther. In Atlanta on Friday, streets plunged into reddish-brown water. Hospitals in southern Georgia were left without electricity as officials warned of severe damage to the power grid. In Tennessee, dozens of people were rescued from a hospital roof, and authorities ordered the evacuation of downtown Newport, a city of about 7,000, due to the “catastrophic failure” of a dam.
Massive Hurricane Helene crashed into Florida’s sparsely populated Big Bend region, bringing storm surge and high winds across the state’s Gulf Coast communities before ripping into southern Georgia. The storm has been blamed for at least 40 deaths, according to an Associated Press tally.
Where is the storm now?
Hurricane Helene weakened to a tropical depression over the Carolinas with maximum sustained winds of 30 mph (48 kph) by early afternoon Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm will continue to weaken as it continues to move north. At 2 p.m., Helene was centered about 125 miles (205 kilometers) southeast of Louisville, Kentucky.
Helene wobbled as it approached Florida’s coast late Thursday before making landfall near the mouth of the Aucilla River with maximum sustained winds estimated at 140 mph (225 kph). That location was only about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year at nearly the same ferocity and caused widespread damage.
Evacuations were underway Friday in areas of Western North Carolina. The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office west of Asheville said it was helping with evacuations in Cruso, Clyde, Canton, and lower-lying parts of Waynesville.
What about airports?
Airports in Florida that closed due to Hurricane Helene were reopened Friday. That included airports in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, and Tallahassee.
At Tampa International Airport there had been 130 flight cancellations in the past 24 hours, as of Friday afternoon, according to FlightAware.
Airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, remained open Friday but were reporting large numbers of cancellations and heavy delays. By 2 p.m., nearly 400 flights to or from Charlotte, a major hub for American Airlines, had been canceled. Nearly 580 more, to or from Charlotte, were delayed, according to FlightAware.
At the larger Atlanta airport, 175 flights were canceled and more than 500 were delayed, according to FlightAware.
What about roads and bridges?
On Friday morning, inspectors were out examining bridges and causeways along Florida’s Gulf Coast to get them back open to traffic quickly, Perdue said.
In addition, 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) of roadway across Florida have been cleared of debris, Perdue said during a news conference in Tallahassee.
“Some of the causeways were underwater, so we have to inspect them and make sure they are safe to pass,” Perdue said. “We had a lot of storm surge up and down the west coast. We had a lot of roads underwater.”
How many people are without power?
As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, some 4.2 million people across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee were without power, according to poweroutage.us.
Most of the outages were in North Carolina and South Carolina — each with more than 1 million outages. Florida had more than 840,000 customers and Georgia had nearly 950,000 customers without power.
Almost 45% of homes and businesses in South Carolina were without power Friday. Whole counties were without electricity as winds gusted to near hurricane force. Trees or other debris blocked every major road leading into Greenwood, a city of about 22,000 people about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west of Columbia, Greenwood County officials said on social media.
Crews of linemen were stationed across the region, ready to begin the process of restoring power as soon as the winds from Helene died down.
What about storm surge?
Flooding along Florida’s coast began well before Hurricane Helene made landfall, with rapidly rising waters reported from as far south as Fort Myers on the state’s Gulf Coast.
Early Friday, sheriff’s officials in Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, were using a large ATV to rescue people who were stranded by rising waters.
In Cedar Key, an old Florida-style island off the Gulf Coast, many homes, motels, and businesses were flooded. Not even the city’s fire rescue building was spared.
“It actually blew out the storm panels on the front doors. Blew out one of the breakaway walls on the back and two entry doors,” the agency posted online. “It appears that we had about 6 feet or better of water inside.”
What is storm surge?
Storm surge is the level at which seawater rises above its normal level.
Much like the way a storm’s sustained winds do not include the potential for even stronger gusts, storm surge doesn’t include the wave height above the mean water level.
Surge is also the amount above what the normal tide is at a time, so a 15-foot storm surge at high tide can be far more devastating than the same surge at low tide.
How are hurricanes measured?
The most common way to measure a hurricane’s strength is the Saffir-Simpson Scale which assigns a category from 1 to 5 based on a storm’s sustained wind speed at its center, with 5 being the strongest.
A TV weather reporter in Atlanta interrupted his live shot about Hurricane Helene Friday to rescue a woman from a vehicle stranded by rising floodwaters.
In the video of the rescue, standing in the rain with the submerged vehicle behind him, FOX Weather meteorologist Bob Van Dillen describes how the woman drove into a flooded area.
He says he has called 911, and she can be heard screaming as he tries to assure her that help is on the way. Then he says to the camera: “It’s a situation. We’ll get back to you in a little bit. I’m going to see if I can help this lady out a little bit more you guys.”
Van Dillen is then seen wading through the water with the woman on her back, carrying her to safety.
Later, in an interview, he said he dropped everything to help.
“I took my wallet out of my pants, and I went in there, waded in, got chest deep,” Van Dillen said. “She was in there, she was still strapped into her car, and the water was actually rising and getting up into the car itself, so she was about, almost neck deep submerged in her own car.”
Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said this was an example of a reporter’s role intersecting with human responsibility.
It’s clear that while he had a professional obligation to report the news, “there’s also someone whose potential life is at risk,” Vincent said. “So I think the call he made is a human call.”
Considering the rising waters and the woman’s cries for help, along with not knowing when help would arrive, “it’s a straightforward case of jumping in — a fellow citizen actually helping another,” Vincent said.
As floodwaters from Hurricane Helene quickly surrounded a small Tennessee hospital near a riverbank, workers first tried to get patients out by ambulance. Then, the road washed out.
They tried to move people to the center of the low-slung building, but they were met by water.
Once rescue boats arrived, the water was so dangerous they couldn’t leave. Ultimately, dozens of staff and patients went to the roof to wait to be taken to safety, and a few others stayed in rescue boats, as winds whipped and brown waters gushed nearby with debris beneath them.
Within a few hours, they were all rescued.
The dramatic scene at Unicoi County Hospital, in Erwin, Tennessee, near the North Carolina border, was one of several that played out across the southern U.S. in Helene’s wake. Flooding caused by its storm surge and rain sent thousands of police officers, firefighters, National Guard members, and others on rescue missions. Hundreds were saved, but at least 40 died.
“It was just the grace of God we had ample amount of people to move people up to the roof,” Jennifer Harrah, the Tennessee hospital’s administrator, told WJHL-TV. “And we were able to put the non-ambulatory patients in the boats and keep them safe and have medical personnel with the patients in the boats as well. And we kind of had them in a corner, protected by a couple of walls.”
Unicoi County Hospital tried to evacuate 11 patients and dozens of others Friday morning after the Nolichucky River overflowed its banks and flooded the facility, but the water was too treacherous for boats sent by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
The decision was made to direct more than 50 people to the roof. Another seven had been temporarily stuck in rescue boats. Ballad Health, which operates the small 10-bed hospital, asked for people’s prayers as it provided the social media update.
After other helicopters failed to reach the hospital because of the storm’s winds, a Virginia State Police helicopter was able to land on the roof. Three National Guard helicopters with hoist capabilities were sent and Ballad Health assisted with its own helicopter, officials said.
In a later post, Ballad Health said all of the staff and patients had been rescued about four hours after dozens of them were moved to the hospital’s roof. Patients were transferred to a different facility and no one remained at the hospital.
“The water there simply came up faster with more debris than was safe to operate in the rafts to ferry from a dry point back to the hospital,” said Patrick Sheehan, Tennessee’s emergency operations director.
Meanwhile in Florida, the efforts of 1,500 search-and-rescue personnel will be concentrated on securing and stabilizing affected communities through the weekend, said Kevin Guthrie, the state’s emergency operations director. The Category 4 storm made landfall on the Northwest Florida coast late Thursday, but it created flooding from storm surge all along the state’s Gulf Coast.
“As those sorts of rescue missions happen today, and continue, please do not go out and visit the impacted areas,” Guthrie said at a Friday news conference in the Florida capital of Tallahassee. “I beg of you, do not get in their way.”
The reported rescues ranged from life-threatening situations to people trapped in their homes by waist-high water and unable to flee on their own.
Five people died in Pinellas County and dozens were rescued after the storm surge hit an unprecedented 8 feet (2.4 meters), forcing some to seek shelter in their attics. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the deaths all occurred in neighborhoods where authorities told residents to evacuate, but many ignored the warnings.
He said survivors told deputies they didn’t believe the warnings after other residents told them the surge wouldn’t be that bad.
“We made our case. We told people what they needed to do, and they chose otherwise,” Gualtieri said.
Gualtieri said his deputies tried overnight to reach those who had been trapped, but in some neighborhoods, it just wasn’t safe. Pinellas County includes St. Petersburg.
“I was out there personally. We tried to launch boats, we tried to use high-water vehicles and we just met with too many obstacles,” Gualtieri said. He said the death toll could rise as emergency crews go door-to-door in the flooded areas to see if anyone remains.
In neighboring Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, the sheriff’s office rescued more than 300 people overnight from a storm surge. Spokesperson Amanda Granit said those included a 97-year-old woman with dementia and her 63-year-old daughter, who got surprised by the surge and needed help fleeing their flooded home; and a 19-year-old woman whose car got stuck as she drove in the rising water and couldn’t get out.
Granit said deputies were conducting rescues in such large numbers they had to request county transit buses to get the people to safety.
“Deputies couldn’t move them fast enough in their patrol vehicles,” Granit said.
In the Tampa Bay-area city of South Pasadena, rescue video shows a house burning early Friday amid flooded streets. Other counties along the Gulf reported more than 100 rescues.
When water from the storm surge reached Kera O’Neil’s knees inside her Hudson home, 45 miles north of Tampa, she knew she and her sister needed to flee with her two cats.
“There’s a moment where you are thinking if this water rises above the level of the stove, we are not going to have much room to breathe,” she said.
O’Neil and her sister waded into the chest-deep water with one cat in a plastic carrier and another in a cardboard box. They found refuge on a neighbor’s more elevated property before Pasco County firefighters on a raft rescued them and three others.
“I’m a Florida girl, and we have been here since we were kids,” she said. “We have never experienced anything like this.”
At sea, the Coast Guard said it rescued three boaters and their pets from the storm in separate incidents. In a Thursday helicopter rescue captured on Coast Guard video, a man and his Irish setter were stranded 25 miles offshore in the Gulf on their 36-foot sailboat in heavy seas.
The video shows the man putting his dog into a yellow rescue vest and pushing it into the raging sea before jumping in himself. A Coast Guard swimmer helped them into a rescue basket and they were hoisted into the copter.
In North Carolina, more than 100 swift-water rescues had occurred as Helene’s rains caused massive flooding Friday, particularly in the state’s western section. Gov. Roy Cooper said the flash floods are threatening lives and are creating numerous landslides.
“The priority now is saving lives,” Cooper said, begging people to stay off the roads unless they were seeking higher ground.
“With the rain that they already had been experiencing before Helene’s arrival, this is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina,” Cooper said.
In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said crews are working to rescue people trapped in more than 115 homes.
Helene’s rains flooded homes in Hanover West, a neighborhood in north Atlanta. Emergency personnel rescued several people from their homes, said Richard Simms, a resident in a nearby neighborhood.
In the wake of Hurricane Helene's destructive force, the small barrier island of Treasure Island off the coast of St. Petersburg is grappling with the aftermath of widespread devastation.
The calm, serene waters were transformed into a chaotic scene of destruction Friday morning after the Category 4 hurricane's storm surge ravaged the coastal town.
Treasure Island Fire Rescue made their way to stranded residents on Friday and got them to safety.
(Treasure Island Fire Rescue)
The storm's relentless winds and surging tides inundated homes, businesses, and infrastructure on the barrier island in Pinellas County situated on the Gulf of Mexico.
As the sun rose Friday morning, authorities assessed the damage, as boats, once safely moored in the marina, were deposited on people's front lawns.
Boats left smashed into homes on Florida island in wake of Helene's surge
Boats were seen littered along a street in Treasure Island, Florida, early on Friday, as the community began to deal with what the local mayor called
City officials said rescue crews from Treasure Island Fire Rescue are working tirelessly to reach stranded residents and bring them to safety, ensuring that none of the more than 6,500 residents are left unaccounted for.
Once authorities deem the area safe, the city will reopen to residents only. However, the exact timing remains uncertain, as crews race against the clock to restore essential services.
About 30 miles inland in nearby Tampa, Mayor Jane Castor reported "extensive damage" across the city, including Davis Islands and other waterfront areas. Footage taken from a Tampa Police Department helicopter showed flooded residential roads.
The National Guard has been activated to help with rescue efforts, Castor adds.
Extensive flood damage seen in coastal Tampa neighborhoods following Helene
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor reported extensive damage on Davis Islands and other waterfront areas of the city on Friday morning, as Hurricane Helene slammed Florida on Thursday night.
Castor stressed that as communities grapple with the aftermath, residents are urged to remain patient and follow the guidance of local authorities.
Water rescues were reported in the Fort Myers and Tampa regions, while some counties stated they wouldn’t respond to calls for assistance because it was simply too dangerous for first responders.
Cedar Key, a small coastal community north of Tampa, experienced one of the highest rises in water levels, with an observation site reporting a surge of more than 10 feet.
A nearby camera set up to capture Helen’s fury streamed live video of waves crashing against homes as the water level exceeded six feet.
Watch: Storm surge closes in on elevated camera in Cedar Key, Florida
Hurricane Helene brought several feet of storm surge to Florida, including to this neighborhood in Cedar Key.
In nearby Steinhatchee, photos showed mobile homes being tossed around in a storm surge estimated to be greater than 8 feet.
Before the storm, the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office warned people who did not evacuate to write their contact information on either an arm or leg so that victims could be identified once the hurricane passed.
"If you or someone you know chose not to evacuate, PLEASE write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in A PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and your family notified," the sheriff’s office said.
It is unknown how many of the county’s approximately 21,000 residents did not heed the evacuation notice; however, FOX Weather cameras captured vehicles still driving around during the height of the storm.
State officials said it could take days before the hardest-hit areas are assessed, but resources were standing by after the all-clear is given.
'Never seen anything like it:' Hurricane Helene's landfall is imminent as eyewall lashes Florida
FOX Weather's Mike Seidel is in Perry, Florida, where he says the amount of power flashes from Hurricane Helene is unlike anything he's ever seen.
Many areas in Florida’s Big Bend experienced water rises during Hurricane Idalia in 2023 and the 1993 Superstorm, but none were as significant as Thursday's event.
Forecasters may never know the exact height of the storm surge southeast of Tallahassee due to the absence of observation sites, but pre-hurricane expectations called for a rise of 15-20 feet.
❗️🌊🇺🇲 - Tropical Storm Helene has caused catastrophic conditions in western North Carolina, particularly affecting communities around Asheville and Boone.
— 🔥🗞The Informant (@theinformant_x) September 27, 2024
The National Weather Service issued an urgent warning about a potential dam failure at Lake Lure, urging residents… pic.twitter.com/C0YxZeCUUH
Heartbreaking scene as catastrophic storm surge leaves Horseshoe Beach, Florida destroyed. Almost every house sustained damage. @MyRadarWX #Hurricane #Helene pic.twitter.com/LcfXADRnEB
— Jordan Hall (@JordanHallWX) September 27, 2024
Further south, in the Tampa Bay and Fort Myers metros, deputies and first responders were seen using boats and other emergency equipment to go door-to-door checking on potential victims.
Water was reported to be entering homes as residents used kayaks to stay afloat and avoid the hazardous floodwaters.
Families of coastal residents even turned to social media for assistance in checking on loved ones as water levels continued to rise into Friday morning.
"Members of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, including Sheriff Chris Nocco, and our partners at Pasco County Fire Rescue continue water rescue efforts along the US 19 corridor," deputies said once Helene passed.
A ray of sunshine during a stormy day was the AquaFence barrier, which successfully held back the storm surge around Tampa’s only Level 1 trauma center.
Tampa General Hospital stated that the wall was designed to withstand storm surges of up to 15 feet and helped prevent water from impacting operations.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor took to the air on Friday to survey both residential and business communities along the region's many waterways.
Hundreds of homes were believed to have been damaged when a storm surge of greater than five feet impacted the bay.
The city said the National Guard was mobilized to assist with rescue operations, but there are no reports of missing people from the storm.
The region experienced the worst coastal flooding since at least the 1921 Tampa Hurricane, which was a Category 3 storm.
Aerial survey of flooding In Tampa
Hundreds of homes were flooded by Hurricane Helene's storm surge in the Tampa Bay metro.
Catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Helene led to an urgent rescue mission in the eastern Tennessee town of Erwin, where helicopters raced to pluck dozens of staff and patients stranded on the roof of a flooded hospital.
Waters from the swollen Nolichucky River began quickly rising at the Unicoi County Hospital early Friday morning, according to a statement from Ballad Health.
Hospital officials called for ambulances to come to evacuate 11 patients, but flooding quickly worsened to the point where ambulances could no longer safely reach the hospital.
The town of Erwin, Tennessee under flood waters in the wake of days of torrential rains.
(Rep. Diana Harshbarger / FOX Weather)
Emergency officials then sent rescue boats to evacuate the hospital as water began pouring inside the facility, but the water around the hospital "became extremely dangerous and impassable and prevented the boats from safely being able to evacuate the hospital," Ballad Health officials said.
High winds from Helene also made it too dangerous to attempt helicopter rescues, officials said.
By midday, 54 people had made it to the roof of the building while seven had managed to remain in rescue boats.
54 people rescued from atop hospital after floodwater forces them to roof
Virginia Police along with the Tennessee National Guard rescued 54 people from the top of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, after Hurricane Helene brought devastating flooding to the region. (Video: VA State Police)
"The hospital has been engulfed by extremely dangerous and rapidly moving water," officials said. "The situation at the hospital is very dangerous and (Tennessee Emergency managers) and National Guard resources are engaged in what can only be described as a dangerous rescue operation."
Helicopters were finally able to begin air evacuations just after 2 p.m., according to a post by Tennessee Rep. Diana Harshbarger.
Ballad Health officials said all staff and patients had been safely evacuated by 4:40 p.m., with patients transferred to Johnson City Medical Center.
The Unicoi Hospital will remain closed until damage can be assessed after floodwaters recede.
The National Weather Service said 5-7 inches of rain fell across the east Tennessee lowlands but rainfall totals reached 15-25 inches in the nearby Appalachians.
The U.S. Coast Guard swiftly responded to a distress call, rescuing a man and his dog from their sailboat as Hurricane Helene raged off the Florida coast.
The 36-foot vessel, battered by the storm, had become disabled and was taking on water approximately 25 miles west of Sanibel Island, authorities said.
A dramatic video captured by a body-worn camera shows a Coast Guard aviation survival technician in action during the daring rescue.
The U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in Clearwater rescued a man and his dog from a disabled sailboat on Thursday during Hurricane Helene. The 36-foot sailboat was taking on water approximately 25 miles off Sanibel Island, Florida.
(USCG Southeast)
The man and his dog were reportedly in good health and were transported to Southwest Florida International Airport to receive medical attention. The disabled sailboat was left adrift.
Helene rapidly intensified into a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday before making landfall approximately 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, at 11:10 p.m. ET.
Boats piled against Florida homes after Helene
Video from Treasure Island, Florida, shows boats tossed around like toys by the fury of Helene, leaving them piled against homes.
The powerful storm's impact, as it moved inland and weakened, was felt across the Southeast and into parts of the mid-Atlantic.
Helene's torrential rains have caused widespread flooding and prompted numerous Flash Flood Emergencies. At least five deaths have been reported in connection with the storm, and numerous areas have been evacuated due to rising waters.
The town of Black Mountain, North Carolina, was completely flooded and without power on Friday due to Helene. pic.twitter.com/YFAM6crA0Q
— FOX Weather (@foxweather) September 28, 2024
DESTROYED BUILDINGS: Multiple historic buildings have partially collapsed in Valdosta, Georgia. Here is a furniture and antique store known as Chez What, which experienced some of the most significant damage from remnants of Hurricane Helene. pic.twitter.com/znxJa9ReJf
— FOX Weather (@foxweather) September 27, 2024