At least 33 killed after Hurricane Helene cuts deadly path through Florida, southeast US

Tropical Storm Helene brought life-threatening flooding to the Carolinas on Friday after leaving widespread destruction as a major hurricane in Florida and Georgia overnight that killed at least 33 people, swamped neighborhoods and left more than 4 million homes and businesses without power.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced 11 deaths in his state, including that of an emergency responder, Seven of the reported fatalities are in Florida, with other in North and South Carolina. Several of the deaths are attributed to trees falling on buildings, reported The Guardian

“It is a very dangerous environment, and one of our finest has lost his life trying to save others,” The Guardian quoted Kemp as saying at a late-morning media briefing.

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“We’ve had 11 confirmed fatalities. I would ask all Georgians, like the Kemp family is doing, to keep these folks in these communities in your thoughts and prayers,” added Kemp.

Kemp said emergency crews were having a hard time getting to places because of storm damage, and urged residents to be patient.

“We got to get our chainsaw cut teams to continue working to free up roads, but we’ll have those resources moving as soon as it’s safe to do so,” he said, adding that authorities were scanning the state by air to identify the worst hit places.

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Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday at 11:10 pm ET (0310 GMT on Friday) and left a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.

Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states, including in Atlanta, where an apartment complex had to be evacuated due to flooding.

Helene came ashore in Florida with 140 mph (225 kph) winds, weakening to a tropical storm as it moved into Georgia early on Friday. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of near 45 mph (97 kph) as of 11 am and was forecast to stall over the Tennessee Valley through the weekend.

Life-threatening storm surges, winds and heavy rains continued, the NHC said. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for several counties in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina on Friday morning.

“This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!” the service said.

In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam just before noon to immediately evacuate to higher ground, saying “Dam failure imminent.”

In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced interstates 40 and 26 to close, the county said on X.

The extent of the damage in Florida began emerging after daybreak.

In coastal Steinhatchee, a storm surge - the wall of seawater pushed ashore by winds - of eight to 10 feet (2.4-3 meters) moved mobile homes, the NWS said on X. In Treasure Island, a barrier island community in Pinellas County, boats were grounded in front yards.

The city of Tampa posted on X that emergency personnel had completed 78 water rescues of residents and that many roads were impassable because of flooding. The Pasco County sheriff’s office rescued more than 65 people overnight.

The US Coast Guard said it had saved nine people from storm waters. Video posted online showed a Coast Guard crew pulling a man and his dog wearing life vests from the ocean on Thursday after his sailboat became disabled off Sanibel Island.

Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management director, urged residents in the affected areas to stay off the roads.

“I beg you, do not go out,” Guthrie said at a morning press briefing. “We have 1,500 search and rescue personnel in the impacted areas. Please get out of the way so we can do our jobs.”

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.

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.”

With inputs from agencies