OCTOBER 2, 2024:
SWANNANOA, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden will survey the devastation in North and South Carolina as rescuers continue their search for anyone still unaccounted for since Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast. The death toll is at least 166. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in neighboring Georgia on Wednesday (Oct. 2, 2024) while Biden is in the Carolinas. Helene was one of the deadliest storms in recent U.S. history and it knocked out power and cellular service for millions. More than 1.2 million customers still were in the dark early Wednesday in the Carolinas and Georgia. In Augusta, Georgia, people waited in line for more than three hours to try to get water from one of five centers set up to serve more than 200,000 people.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- A crisis unfolded in Asheville, North Carolina, as officials pledged to get more water, food and other supplies to flood-stricken areas without power and cellular service Monday (Sept. 30, 2024), days after Hurricane Helene ripped across the U.S. Southeast. The death toll from the storm surpassed 100.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said during a news conference Monday that the death toll in that state had risen from 17 to 25. A North Carolina county that includes the mountain city of Asheville reported 30 people killed there.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2024:
PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Helene has caused at least 52 deaths and billions of dollars of destruction across a wide swath of the southeast U.S. More than 3 million customers were without power Saturday, and some face a continued threat of floods. Helene blew ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday (Sept. 26, 2024) and then quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, splintering homes and sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams. Deaths from the storm have occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2024, UPDATE:
UNDATED (AP)- Hurricane Helene weakened into a tropical depression on Friday after making landfall overnight in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm. At least 30 people in four states have died.
Authorities continue to rescue people trapped by floodwaters and millions were without power across much of the southeastern U.S.
Helene came ashore amid warnings from the National Hurricane Center that the enormous system could create a “nightmare” storm surge.
Hurricane John once again weakened into a tropical storm Thursday evening as the slow-moving storm crept along the coast of the Mexican state of Michoacan, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened Friday into a hurricane in the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean and could cause dangerous waves in parts of Bermuda, forecasters said.
Tropical Storm Joyce formed on Friday morning in the Atlantic Ocean and wasn’t threatening land, forecasters said. The storm was expected to strengthen gradually through Sunday before weakening early next week.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2024:
CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Emergency crews are rushing to rescue people trapped in flooded homes after Helene roared ashore as a powerful Category 4 hurricane in Florida. The system generated a massive storm surge and knocked out power to millions of customers in several states. At least six people were reported dead. The storm made landfall late Thursday (Sept. 26, 2024) in a sparsely populated region with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) in the rural Big Bend area. That region is home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet. But the damage extended hundreds of miles to the north, with flooding as far away as North Carolina.
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Fast-moving Hurricane Helene was advancing Thursday (Sept. 26, 2024) across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, threatening an “unsurvivable” storm surge in northwestern parts of the state as well as damaging winds, rains and flash floods hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern U.S., forecasters said.
Helene is expected to be a major hurricane — meaning a Category 3 or higher — when it makes landfall on Florida’s northwestern coast Thursday evening. As of early Thursday, hurricane warnings and flash flood warnings extended far beyond the coast up into south-central Georgia. The governors of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas have all declared emergencies in their states.
The storm was expected to make landfall in the Big Bend region, where Florida’s panhandle and peninsula meet, according to Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
“Regardless of how strong it is, it is a very large storm, Beven said. “It’s going to have impacts that cover a large area.”
The National Weather Service office in Tallahassee forecast storm surges of up to 20 feet (6 meters) and warned they could be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Florida’s Apalachee Bay. It added that high winds and heavy rains also posed risks.
“This forecast, if realized, is a nightmare surge scenario for Apalachee Bay,” the office said. “Please, please, please take any evacuation orders seriously!”
In Crawfordville, farther inland and about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Apalachee Bay, Christine Nazworth stocked up on bottled water, baked goods and premade meals at a Walmart. She said her family would be sheltering in place, despite Wakulla County issuing a mandatory evacuation order.
“I’m prayed up,” she said. “Lord have mercy on us. And everybody else that might be in its path.”
Wakulla County was one of several to issue evacuation orders. Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, school districts and multiple universities have cancelled classes.
Early Thursday, Helene was about 350 miles (560 kilometers) southwest of Tampa and moving north northeast at 12 mph (19 kph) with top sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph). Forecasters said it should become a Category 3 or higher hurricane, meaning winds would top 110 mph (177 kph).
While Helene will likely weaken as it moves inland, its “fast forward speed will allow strong, damaging winds, especially in gusts, to penetrate well inland across the southeastern United States,” including in the southern Appalachian Mountains, the hurricane center said. The center posted lesser tropical storm warnings as far north as North Carolina, and warned that much of the region could experience prolonged power outages, toppled trees and dangerous flooding.
Helene had swamped parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, flooding streets and toppling trees as it passed offshore and brushed the resort city of Cancun.
The storm formed Tuesday in the Caribbean Sea. In Cuba, the government preventively shut off power in some communities as waves as high as 16 feet (5 meters) slammed Cortes Bay. And in the Cayman Islands, schools closed and residents pumped water from flooded homes.
Rain was already falling steadily in Atlanta on Wednesday evening as shoppers emptied shelves of water at a Kroger supermarket east of downtown. The weather service in Atlanta issued flash flood warnings for much of the state.
Charles McComb said he still found it hard to believe Helene would seriously impact the city, which is more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of the Gulf of Mexico. “It would be really unique for it to hit so far inland,” Charles said as he bought water, bread and lunch meat.
He was, however, worried about losing electricity.
“I do live in an area where it doesn’t take so much for the power to go out,” he said.
Helene is forecast to be one of the largest storms in breadth in years to hit the region, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. He said since 1988, only three Gulf hurricanes were bigger than Helene’s predicted size: 2017’s Irma, 2005’s Wilma and 1995’s Opal.
Areas 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the Georgia-Florida line can expect hurricane conditions. More than half of Georgia’s public school districts and several universities canceled classes.
For Atlanta, Helene could be the worst strike on a major Southern inland city in 35 years, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd.
Landslides were possible in southern Appalachia, and rainfall was expected as far away as Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.
Federal authorities have positioned generators, food and water, along with search-and-rescue and power restoration teams.
Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.
In further storm activity, Tropical Storm Isaac formed Wednesday in the Atlantic and was expected to strengthen as it moves eastward across the open ocean, possibly becoming a hurricane by the end of the week, forecasters said. Isaac was about 690 miles (1,115 kilometers) northeast of Bermuda with top sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph), according to the hurricane center, which said its swells and winds could affect parts of Bermuda and eventually the Azores by the weekend.
In the Pacific, former Hurricane John reformed Wednesday as a tropical storm and was strengthening as it threatened areas of Mexico’s western coast. Officials posted hurricane warnings for southwestern Mexico.
John hit the country’s southern Pacific coast late Monday, killing at least two people, triggering mudslides, and damaging homes and trees. It grew into a Category 3 hurricane in a matter of hours and made landfall east of Acapulco. It reemerged over the ocean after weakening inland.
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