Over the weekend, Hurricane Helene, a devastating Category 4 storm, battered the southeastern United States, leaving widespread destruction, displacement, and tragedy in its wake. The storm, which struck Florida’s Big Bend region with sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph), unleashed torrents of rain across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee, causing rivers and creeks to overflow and straining dams. The hurricane has so far claimed at least 64 lives and left millions without power as rescue efforts continued amid the catastrophic damage.
The impact of Helene was most deeply felt in Florida’s rural Big Bend region, where small towns like Steinhatchee were severely hit. Many residents found themselves homeless, with no means of shelter or recourse. Janalea England, a local business owner, turned her commercial fish market into a donation hub to aid neighbors and friends who had lost everything in the storm. Reflecting on the scale of destruction, England remarked, "I’ve never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now."
After ravaging Florida, Helene moved inland, wreaking havoc across Georgia, where Governor Brian Kemp described the aftermath as looking like “a bomb went off,” with homes splintered and highways covered in debris. As the storm moved northward, it weakened but continued to cause devastation, particularly in the Carolinas and Tennessee, where torrential rainfall triggered landslides, flooding, and road closures. In Western North Carolina, landslides forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other vital roads, leaving the region isolated. The closures also delayed the East Tennessee State University football team’s journey to South Carolina, turning what should have been a routine drive into a grueling 16-hour ordeal.
Some of the most dramatic rescue efforts occurred in rural Unicoi County, East Tennessee, where patients and staff from a hospital had to be airlifted by helicopter from the rooftop. Similar rescues continued in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where Asheville experienced significant flooding, with part of the city submerged under water. Local sheriff Quentin Miller said the extent of the storm’s fury had taken everyone by surprise, adding, “To say this caught us off guard would be an understatement.”
In Asheville’s Biltmore Village neighborhood, residents like Mario Moraga were left heartbroken by the widespread damage. Neighbors banded together to check on each other, offering support and assistance as they faced the grim reality of no cell service and no electricity. Emergency response teams struggled to communicate with affected areas due to downed cell towers, making it difficult to report the full extent of casualties and damage. Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones acknowledged that while there had been fatalities, efforts to contact next of kin were being hindered by the lack of communication infrastructure, with families desperately turning to social media to seek information and assistance.
Helene, now downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, continued to hover over the Tennessee Valley over the weekend, with the National Hurricane Center warning of lingering heavy rainfall and flooding. North Carolina bore the brunt of some of the worst flooding seen in a century. In Spruce Pine, a community in the western part of the state, over two feet (0.6 meters) of rain fell from Tuesday through Saturday, inundating the area. Atlanta also saw record rainfall, with 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) recorded over a two-day period, the heaviest amount of rain since the city began keeping records in 1878.
President Joe Biden described the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene as "overwhelming," pledging to provide federal assistance to those affected. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, unlocking critical federal funding to aid in the recovery efforts. Helene’s impact has been especially deadly for South Carolina, where at least 25 people have lost their lives, making it the deadliest storm in the state since Hurricane Hugo in 1989, which killed 35 people. Other fatalities have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia, with a total death toll across the region expected to rise as rescue teams continue to assess the damage.
In Florida, nine of the 11 confirmed deaths were from Pinellas County, where individuals tragically drowned in their homes despite mandatory evacuation orders. The storm made landfall near the mouth of the Aucilla River, just 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia struck last year, marking the third major hurricane to hit the Big Bend region in just over a year. The repeated devastation is leading residents to feel that their region has become a "hurricane superhighway."
John Berg, a 76-year-old resident of Steinhatchee, noted that after Idalia and the two other storms, residents are coming to terms with the harsh new reality of climate change and its role in intensifying natural disasters. "It’s bringing everybody to reality about what this is now with disasters," Berg remarked.
Scientists have long warned that climate change is fueling stronger and more frequent hurricanes. Warmer ocean waters provide more energy for storms like Helene to intensify rapidly, turning into powerful cyclones within hours. Helene, the eighth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, exemplifies this troubling trend. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had predicted an above-average hurricane season, largely due to record-high ocean temperatures, and Helene’s destructive path has validated those concerns.
The economic toll on Helene is expected to be staggering. Moody’s Analytics projects property damage to be between $15 billion and $26 billion. Meanwhile, AccuWeather’s preliminary estimates of the total damage and economic loss range from $95 billion to $110 billion, underscoring the immense financial burden that the storm has imposed on the southeastern United States.
As evacuations and rescue operations continue, residents and officials are left grappling with the long-term consequences of Hurricane Helene. From the deadly flooding to the strain on infrastructure and the human toll of displacement and loss, the storm has left a deep scar on the region. With hurricane season far from over, the southeastern United States faces a daunting challenge of recovery while preparing for the possibility of future storms.
