Hélène, this Thursday evening It entered as a powerful Category 4 hurricane along the northwest coast of Florida, has so far claimed the lives of 42 victims, a figure that may increase, and leaves a trail of destruction across the southeastern United States.
The cyclone caused the deaths of seven people in Florida, 15 in Georgia and 17 others in South Carolina, two of them are firefighters, as confirmed this Friday by the governor of this state, Henry McMaster. In North Carolina, two deaths have been confirmed so far, including a child under the age of four.
Around Friday afternoonmore than 4.6 million people had no electricity in a dozen states as thousands of workers cleared debris, brush and repaired power lines in an effort to restore electricity. Nearly a million flights have been canceled in the United States, the vast majority of them with scheduled departures or arrivals at the international airports of Charlotte (North Carolina), Atlanta (Georgia) and Tampa (Florida). .
At first light, residents of Florida towns like Cedar Key and Perry, the latter where the hurricane made landfall, They discovered before them a Dantesque scenarioplagued by flooded streets, debris and torn windows and roofs. Some towns in this region, such as Steinhatchee, a small fishing village still recovering from the onslaught of Hurricane Idalia in August of last year, saw homes and businesses destroyed by falling trees or the force of the winds.
Downgraded to post-tropical cyclone
The hurricane made landfall Thursday after 11 p.m. local time (3:00 GMT Friday), near the town of Perry, in the northwest Florida region known as the Big Bend, with maximum sustained winds of 225 kilometers per hour (140 miles). Flooding from rains and storm surges, which raised sea levels more than 3 meters above average, was extensive, with damage generally reaching hundreds of kilometers to the north.
Hélène, weakened to a point posttropical cyclone With sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour, this still causes flooding and emergencies, as happened at a hospital in Tennessee, where 54 people had to be rescued by helicopter from the roof of the health center flooded.
In the southern state, about 20,000 residents were ordered to evacuate due to flash flooding and the danger posed by a dam near the town of Newport. In North Carolina, its governor, Roy Cooper, warned of the risk of dangerous landslides due to torrential rains. “This is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina,” projection.
In towns in the west of this state, a curfew was imposed from Friday evening, to facilitate the task of emergency teams, according to local authorities. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said today that several hospitals in the southern part of the state have lost power and that rescue teams are heading east, where dozens of residents are stuck in their homes at early Morning.
Federal Emergency Agency (FEMA) deployed up to 1,500 rescuers in the disaster zonewho participated in some 400 rescues in the Tampa area of West Florida, in addition to distributing water and food. The White House noted that both United States President Joe Biden and Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris are “following these efforts closely and receiving regular briefings.”
