Massive Hurricane Helene crashed into Florida’s sparsely populated Big Bend area, bringing storm surge and excessive winds throughout the state’s Gulf Coast communities earlier than ripping into southern Georgia.
Where is the storm now?
Hurricane Helene weakened to a tropical storm over the Carolinas with most sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) by mid-morning Friday, the National Hurricane Center stated.
The storm will proceed to weaken because it continues to maneuver north throughout Georgia. At 11 a.m., Helene was centered about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of Bryson City, North Carolina, and about 105 miles (165 kilometers) north-northeast of Atlanta, transferring north at 32 mph (52 kph), the hurricane middle in Miami reported.
Helene wobbled because it approached Florida’s coast late Thursday earlier than making landfall close to the mouth of the Aucilla River with most sustained winds estimated at 140 mph (225 kph). That location was solely about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of the place Hurricane Idalia got here ashore final yr at practically the identical ferocity and precipitated widespread injury.
Evacuations have been underway Friday morning in areas of Western North Carolina. The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office west of Asheville stated it was serving to with evacuations in in Cruso, Clyde, Canton and lower-lying elements of Waynesville.
How many deaths have been reported?
The storm has been blamed for not less than 17 deaths.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp stated Friday that not less than 11 individuals in his state have been killed and dozens are nonetheless trapped in houses broken by Helene.
Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed two deaths in Florida. One individual was hit by a falling sign up Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood and one other was killed when a tree fell onto a house in Dixie County.
South Carolina officers confirmed that two individuals have been killed when bushes fell on their houses in Anderson County, South Carolina.
Another individual was killed when a tree fell into a house in North Carolina, and a second individual died in a automotive accident on a flooded highway in Catawba County, Gov. Roy Cooper stated.
What about airports?
Airports in Florida that closed resulting from Hurricane Helene shall be reopened Friday, Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation Jared Perdue stated. That consists of airports in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland and Tallahassee.
At Orlando International Airport, Florida’s busiest, there had been 77 flight cancellations up to now 24 hours, as of Friday morning, in accordance with FlightAware.
Airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, remained open Friday morning however have been reporting giant numbers of cancellations and heavy delays. By 8 a.m., practically 300 flights to or from Charlotte, a significant hub for American Airlines, had been canceled. Nearly 400 extra, to or from Charlotte, have been delayed, in accordance with FlightAware.
At the bigger Atlanta airport, greater than 130 flights have been canceled and greater than 180 delayed, in accordance with FlightAware.
What about roads and bridges?
On Friday morning, inspectors have been out inspecting bridges and causeways alongside Florida’s Gulf Coast to get them again open to site visitors shortly, Perdue stated.
In addition, 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) of roadway throughout Florida have been cleared of particles, Perdue stated throughout a information convention in Tallahassee.
“Some of the causeways have been underwater, so we have now to examine them and ensure they’re protected to move,” Perdue stated. “We had numerous storm surge up and down the west coast. We had numerous roads underwater.”
How many individuals are with out energy?
As of 9:15 a.m. Friday, some 3.2 million individuals throughout Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee have been with out energy, in accordance with poweroutage.us.
Most of the outages, have been in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — every with greater than 1 million outages.
Almost 45% of houses and companies in South Carolina have been with out energy Friday morning. Whole counties have been with out electrical energy as winds gusted to close hurricane power. Trees or different particles blocked each main highway main into Greenwood, a metropolis of about 22,000 individuals about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west of Columbia, Greenwood County officers stated on social media.
Crews of linemen have been stationed throughout the area, prepared to start the method of restoring energy as quickly because the winds from Helene died down.
What about storm surge?
Flooding alongside Florida’s coast started nicely earlier than Hurricane Helene made landfall, with quickly rising waters reported from as far south as Fort Myers on the state’s Gulf Coast.
Early Friday, sheriff’s officers in Hillsborough County, the place Tampa is situated, have been utilizing a big ATV to rescue individuals who have been stranded by rising waters.
In Cedar Key, an previous Florida-style island off the Gulf Coast, many houses, motels and companies have been flooded. Not even the town’s fireplace rescue constructing was spared.
“It really blew out the storm panels on the entrance doorways. Blew out one of many breakaway partitions on the again and two entry doorways,” the company posted on-line. “It seems that we had about 6 toes or higher of water inside.”
What is storm surge?
Storm surge is the extent at which sea water rises above its regular stage.
Much like the way in which a storm’s sustained winds don’t embody the potential for even stronger gusts, storm surge doesn’t embody the wave peak above the imply water stage.
Surge can also be the quantity above what the traditional tide is at a time, so a 15-foot storm surge at excessive tide could be way more devastating than the identical surge at low tide.
How are hurricanes measured?
The commonest approach to measure a hurricane’s power is the Saffir-Simpson Scale that assigns a class from 1 to five based mostly on a storm’s sustained wind velocity at its middle, with 5 being the strongest.