Helenewhich entered as a powerful Category 4 hurricane across the coast of northwest Florida on Thursday night, has so far claimed the lives of 41 victims, a count that may rise, and is leaving a trail of destruction across the southeastern United States.
The cyclone has caused the death of seven people in Florida, 15 in Georgia and another 17 in South Carolina, two of them firefighters, as confirmed this Friday by the governor of this state, Henry McMaster.
In North Carolina, two fatalities have been confirmed so far, one of them a child under four years of age.
By Friday afternoon, more than 4.6 million people were without power in a dozen states, while thousands of workers removed debris, brush and repaired power lines with a view to restoring electricity.
Almost a thousand flights were canceled in the US, the vast majority of them with scheduled departures or arrivals at the international airports of Charlotte (North Carolina), Atlanta (Georgia) and Tampa (Florida).
With the first light of dawn, residents of Florida towns such as Cedar Key and Perry, the latter where the cyclone made landfall, discovered before them a Dantesque scene, plagued by flooded streets, debris, and torn-off windows and roofs.
Some towns in this region, such as Steinhatchee, a small fishing town that was still recovering from the onslaught of Hurricane Idalia in August of last year, saw some homes and businesses destroyed by falling trees or the force of the winds.
The hurricane made landfall just after 11:00 p.m. Thursday night, local time (3:00 GMT Friday), near the town of Perry, in the northwest Florida region known as Big Bend, with maximum sustained winds of 225 kilometers per hour (140 miles).
Helene: Devastating step
Flooding from rain and storm surge, which raised sea levels to more than 3 meters above average, was extensive, with damage generally reaching hundreds of kilometers to the north.
Helene, this afternoon weakened to a post-tropical cyclone with sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour (35 miles), still produces flooding and emergency situations, as has occurred in a hospital in Tennessee, where 54 people had to be rescued by helicopter from the roof of the health center that was flooded.
In this southern state, about 20,000 residents received a mandatory evacuation order due to flash floods and due to the danger posed by a dam near the town of Newport.
In North Carolina, its governor, Roy Cooper, warned about the risks of dangerous landslides due to torrential rains. “This is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina,” he highlighted.
In towns in the west of this state, a curfew has been imposed starting Friday night, to facilitate the tasks of emergency teams, according to local authorities.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said today that several hospitals in the south of this state have lost power and that rescue teams are heading east, where dozens of residents have been trapped in their homes in the early hours of today.
The federal emergency agency (FEMA) deployed up to 1,500 first responders to the disaster area, who have assisted in some 400 rescues in the Tampa area, in western Florida, in addition to distributing water and food.
The White House noted today that both the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the vice president and Democratic candidate in the next elections, Kamala Harris, “are closely following these efforts and are receiving regular information.”
Two more districts of Lima declare an emergency due to an increase in extortion
#Helene #leaves #dead #destruction #passes #southeastern #United #States
2024-09-28 16:11:08
