Hurricane Helene killed and destroyed far and wide – from Tampa to Atlanta to Asheville, North Carolina; the high winds, heavy rains and sheer size created a perfect mix for destruction.
The storm made landfall late Thursday along a largely undeveloped expanse of pines and salt marshes on the coast of Florida’s Big Bend, but immediately showed its far-reaching power several hundred miles away. At least 64 people were killed on Sunday morning.
Tampa Bay was inundated by a massive storm surge that sent water into people’s attics. Atlanta received more than 12 inches of rain, more than any 48-hour period in history. In South Carolina, so many trees were toppled that at one point more than 40 percent of the state lost electricity. In North Carolina, dams were in danger of failing and entire communities were cut off by flooding. A hospital in Tennessee was flooded so quickly that more than fifty patients had to be rescued from the roof by helicopter.
How did a single storm cause destruction so far away?
Dan Brown, a specialist at the National Hurricane Center near Miami, said Helene had all the characteristics that make a storm widely destructive.
It was large, about 350 miles wide. It was strong, with winds of up to 140 mph (225 km per hour) when it made landfall late Thursday, creating widespread storm surge. It brought heavy rain. And it was fast, traveling north at up to 24 miles per hour offshore and 30 miles per hour inland.
He compared the geographic extent of Helene’s destruction to 1972’s Hurricane Agnes, 1989’s Hurricane Hugo and 2004’s Hurricane Ivan.
“Systems that become very powerful, large and fast unfortunately bring the potential for impact and damage far inland,” Brown said on Saturday.
Here’s a look at Helene’s many deadly tentacles.
The destruction of Helene began Thursday, hours before it made landfall, as it swept through the Gulf of Mexico. The then wind speeds of 193 kilometers per hour caused a storm surge that pushed 2 to 4.5 meters of water onto islands and coastal neighborhoods along the west coast of Florida.
Nine people who drowned were residents who stayed behind after their neighborhoods in Tampa Bay were evacuated.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri expressed frustration: Issuing evacuation orders is not a decision made lightly, he said. Many who ignored officials then called for help, while some took refuge in their attics from the rising waters. Officers tried to help with boats and high-profile vehicles, but were unable to reach many neighborhoods.
“We argued our case, we told people what to do and they chose something different,” Gualtieri said at a news conference on Friday.
Late Thursday, Helene’s eye fell on the Northwest Florida coast in the Big Bend area, the place where the Panhandle extends westward from the peninsula — Hurricanes Idalia and Debby had previously hit the area in the past 13 months.
Susan Sauls Hartway had evacuated her seaside home – it was gone when she returned on Friday.
“I knew it would be bad, but I had no idea it would be this bad,” Hartway said. “This is incredible.”
After reaching land, Helene rushed into Georgia. Among the more than 20 people killed were a 27-year-old mother and her one-month-old twins who died Friday when trees fell on their home in Thomson, just west of Augusta. An 89-year-old woman was killed when trees fell on her nearby home.
Rhonda Bell and her husband spent a sleepless night in the downstairs bedroom of their century-old home outside Valdosta, where Helene’s center passed shortly after midnight.
The wind tore off limbs, ripped off neighbors’ shingles and toppled fence panels in the neighborhood that had train tracks running along one edge. Then a towering oak tree crashed through the roof of an upstairs bedroom.
“I just felt the whole house shaking,” Bell said. “Thank God we’re both alive to tell about it.”
Atlanta received 28 inches of rain, the heaviest fall in 48 hours since the city began keeping records in 1878. Streets flooded, leaving cars submerged. The fire brigade rescued at least twenty people.
Helene’s heavy rains in the state’s western mountains caused massive flooding and mudslides across the state Asheville region, cutting off most communications and making the roads impassable.
Video posted online shows large parts of the city underwater.
More than 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometers) away in Texas, Jessica Drye Turner begged on Facebook Friday for someone to rescue her family members stranded on a rooftop in Asheville.
But in a follow-up message Saturday, Turner said the roof had collapsed before help arrived and that her parents, both in their 70s, and her six-year-old nephew had drowned.
“I cannot put into words the sadness, heartbreak and devastation my sisters and I are experiencing,” she wrote.
Jeff Muenstermann and his wife Lisa, friends of Turner, told The Associated Press on Saturday that they spoke with Turner after she posted the initial plea for help. At her request, they sent a message to members of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, where they all attend, to pray for the safety of the family in North Carolina.
“I just thought they were going to be saved,” Jeff Muenstermann said. “I asked everyone to pray and they did. And a few hours later her husband called me, completely distraught and said… we’ve lost them. They all drowned.”
The storm was especially deadly in South Carolina. The biggest impact appears to be falling trees. The storm also spawned tornadoes across the state.
In Saluda County, two firefighters were killed when a tree fell on their truck while responding to a call. Four people were killed by falling trees in Greenville County. In Aiken County, four people were also killed by trees falling on homes, including a 78-year-old husband and his 74-year-old wife.
Helene’s heavy rains caused the state’s eastern rivers to overflow their banks and threaten to burst dams, endangering local residents and forcing them to flee.
Patients and others at a hospital near the North Carolina border had to be evacuated to the roof Friday as streams from the flooding Nolichucky River flowed into the building.
Unicoi County Hospital attempted to evacuate 11 patients and dozens of others, but the water was too treacherous for boats sent by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency to navigate.
Helicopters were called in to help rescue them. Eventually everyone was evacuated.