ST. MARKS, Fla. – Helene weakened to a post-tropical cyclone as it swept through the Southeast on Friday but the storm still wielded enough power to inflict historic flooding across multiple states, causing 33 deaths and millions of power outages.
Helene made landfall at about 11:10 p.m. ET Thursday near Perry, Florida, with 140-mph winds, making it the first known Category 4 storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since records began in 1851. Overturned boats, flattened homes and a vista of floodwater several-feet-deep were revealed at dawn across the storm-weary region.
In Steinhatchee, a coastal town just miles from where Helene made landfall, John Kujawski drove a golf cart with his wife, Jamie Lee, over debris and around downed trees, horrified at the damage. The town of some 500 people took on 9.63 feet of storm surge, a record.
“This is overwhelming,” Lee said. “I don’t think it’s sunk in.”
For several hours, the storm maintained hurricane strength as it pushed inland across northern Florida and into Georgia. By 5 p.m. ET, the weather service said Helene had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone with sustained winds of 35 mph. The storm crossed into Kentucky and was about 50 miles south-southeast of Louisville.
Flood alerts urging people to seek higher ground were active across parts of the Carolinas and the Atlanta area, where communities have been inundated with up to 10 inches of rain, according to the weather service. Hundreds of water rescues were underway across the Southeast amid the torrential rain and continued coastal flooding in western Florida. Meanwhile, more than 4.5 million utility customers were without power from Florida to Virginia.
Track the storm:Map Helene's forecast path through Georgia
Developments:
∎ Tornado warnings were active across eastern North Carolina and southern Virginia Friday afternoon as Helene pushed further inland, according to the weather service. Flash flood and tropical storm warnings were active throughout northeast Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.
∎ Gov. Brian Kemp told reporters 115 structures in the southern Georgia city of Valdosta had been heavily damaged by Helene's high winds, and crews were responding to rescue people trapped inside.
∎ Widespread flooding and a mudslide shut down a long stretch of Interstate 40 Friday afternoon, extending between Tennessee and North Carolina.
∎ Helene is tied as the 14th most powerful hurricane to hit anywhere in the U.S. since records have been kept and the seventh most powerful to slam into Florida, according to National Hurricane Center data.
∎ Federal Emergency Management Agency teams were on the ground in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas Friday. President Joe Biden had approved emergency declarations for all five states ahead of Helene's landfall in anticipation of the storm's sprawling impact.
∎ More than 900 U.S. flights were canceled and more than 3,300 flights were delayed by Friday afternoon, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website.
Helene wrecked dozens of homes across Horseshoe Beach, a tiny beach town and fishing destination in Florida's Big Bend that has been hit by several hurricanes in recent years.
Some houses were shoved off their concrete footings, while others had their roofs flayed off. The wind and water also tumbled docks onto land, tore down chain-link fences and snapped telephone poles.
Bill and Debbie Dotson erected a tent beneath their home Friday where they planned to camp after the storm ripped their staircases away, blocking access to the otherwise undamaged house roughly 20 feet off the ground. Helene was their fourth hurricane since moving to the coastal town in 2021.
“We sure are grateful that it’s standing,” Debbie Dotson, 63, said.
Like many homes in Horseshoe Beach, theirs is built atop concrete footings to keep them out of the flood waters. Idalia destroyed about 40 houses, and the Dotsons said they thought this storm caused more damage.
Bill Dotson, 67, said he gauged the floodwaters at around 15 feet, based on the damage to the top of his concrete pilings. Last year, Idalia destroyed one staircase and damaged the other. A local contractor had only recently finished rebuilding both sets for $15,000.
“We came out here and saw this beauty and wanted to go fishing in our retirement,” Debbie Dotson said. “We had the discussion about hurricanes, but you never imagine something like this. You just don’t.”
– Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
A reported "catastrophic" dam failure that triggered an emergency evacuation for the entire downtown area of Newport, Tennessee, Friday afternoon was a false alarm, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said.
Cocke County officials urged all residents to flee the area around 3 p.m. ET Friday after reports that Walters Dam had failed. State emergency management officials said around 4:40 p.m. that Duke Energy, which owns and operates the dam, informed them it was still standing.
"There is no longer a risk of an imminent dam failure for Walters Dam on the Pigeon River," the National Weather Service office in Morristown confirmed on X at 4:45 p.m. "Major flooding continues, however. Continue to heed evacuation orders from local emergency management and law enforcement. Do not drive into flooded or closed roads."
The dam scare comes as nearby rivers continue to rise from the effects of Helene. The Pigeon River at Newport rose to nearly three times its flood stage Friday afternoon, and it's expected to reach 23 feet before receding this evening. The French Broad at Newport was expected to reach more than double its flood stage by the end of the day. By 1:45 p.m., it had reached over 17 feet with another 6 feet expected.
-Tyler Whetstone and Allison Kiehl, the Knoxville News Sentinel
From the posts she saw on Facebook about her Steinhatchee neighborhood, Lynn Padgett knew the damage might be dire at the house she’s called home for 41 of her 48 years.
She just didn’t expect it would not be where she had left it Thursday.
The house was located in a riverside neighborhood alongside other homes. Helene's surge of water pushed it off its foundation and relocated it to the edge of a wooded area just down the way.
"This is the fourth time the river has flooded (the house) and the first time it’s washed my house away,” she said, chuckling, as she sat in her car with five Dachshunds and a cat. Another cat, Muffin, had climbed up a tree in fright.
She’s not laughing because it’s funny; not only does the Jiffy Food stop manager’s home not have flood insurance, but it’s not insured for wind either.
The Jiffy store she works at in Steinhatchee is flooded out, too, she said. She was waiting in her car, hoping the water would go down enough so she could get to her house where she lived with her husband, 64; her father, 67, who uses a wheelchair; and her 18-year-old son.
“Laugh, cry, I don’t know what to do,” she said. “We have nothing.”
-Anne Geggis, Palm Beach Post
More than 50 patients and staff were rescued after being stranded on a hospital rooftop as floodwaters quickly rose at Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, on Friday afternoon, Sen. Bill Hagerty said.
"Everyone has been rescued safely from the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin," he said. "More trouble on the horizon for East Tennessee communities. Please stay safe and thank you for your prayers!"
Floodwaters from the rapidly rising Nolichucky River and high winds prevented ambulances, rescue boats and even helicopters from reaching the hospital earlier, according to a statement from Ballad Health.
"The hospital has been engulfed by extremely dangerous and rapidly moving water. The situation at the hospital is very dangerous," the statement said.
Ballad Health said that at about 12:30 p.m., 54 people were on the roof and seven were in rescue boats. Water has also intruded into the hospital, the statement said. The rescue was complete by about 4:15 p.m., according to Hagerty's post.
Virginia State Police said its aviation units were helping with the rescues and posted a photo on social media showing the building surrounded by high floodwaters.
Her riverside home is destroyed, eight of the 24 riverside rental units she owns were flooded, and the electrical system powering the riverside marina building may have been fritzed.
And still, Danielle Norwood, 59, owner of the Sea Hag Marina that fronts the Steinhatchee River, was smiling somehow as she pointed to a concrete floor that had crumbled.
“I think I’m stunned at this point, I can’t release a lot of emotions,” she said. And then she paused.
“We’ll build back," she said. "We’re those kind of people.”
The build-back is familiar territory for Norwood. Last year's Hurricane Idalia destroyed $1 million worth of docks and flooding shorted out the building's electrical system. To avoid a repeat, Norwood moved the electrical system to a second floor in the building, but Helene's nearly 10-foot storm surge appears to have shorted it again.
On the floor below, a wooden bar was still standing; however, the TVs above it had a line across the screen showing how far the water had risen.
The good news for Norwood is that Helene's fury spared the feral cats who prowl the marina grounds — and the docks that were so badly torn up by Idalia.
Read the full story here:In Florida's Big Bend, officials start rescues, assessing damage post-Hurricane Helene
– Anne Geggis, Palm Beach Post
Over 4.5 million homes and businesses across the eastern U.S. were in the dark Friday afternoon as Helene pummeled the region with powerful winds and heavy rain.
Below are the outage totals from Florida to Virginia as of 5 p.m., according to a USA TODAY power outage tracker.
Florida power outage map:Track widespread outages from Helene in the state
Officials in Florida's Pinellas County – hundreds of miles from where Helene came ashore – painted a grim picture when describing the storm's impact on its coast.
“I would just describe it, having spent the last few hours out there, as a war zone,” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri at a news conference Friday morning.
He said roads were impassable and that debris and damage were widespread: "It’s going to take awhile before that area gets back to any sense of functionality.”
Along the Pinellas County coast, storm surge overnight reached over 8 feet – ”something we’ve never seen before” said Cathie Perkins, director of the county's emergency management, at a news conference Friday.
At least 33 people have died as Helene unleashed dangerous weather conditions across multiple states in the Southeast, according to authorities and media reports. Officials have said they expect the death toll to keep rising as they go door-to-door in the aftermath of the storm.
In Florida, at least seven deaths have been attributed to the storm. In Pinellas County, which encompasses Clearwater and St. Petersburg, five people suffered storm-related deaths, said Cathie Perkins, director of emergency management, at a news conference Friday.
Earlier Friday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters a person died in Dixie County, along the Big Bend coast, after a tree fell on a home. On Thursday night, a person was killed in a storm-related traffic fatality in Ybor City in Tampa, the governor said.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said at a news conference Friday that 11 people were killed during the storm, including a first responder.
"One of our finest lost his life trying to save others," Kemp said.
At least 13 people had died during the storm across South Carolina, the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper reported, citing local officials. Of those, two people were killed by trees that had fallen on their homes, the Anderson County Sheriff's Office and coroner's office told local media outlets. Two firefighters in Saluda County were also killed, Gov. Henry McMaster said at a news conference. Two people died in Newberry County, Sheriff James Lee Foster said in an email. Four others died in Aiken County, Coroner Darryl Ables told USA TODAY by phone.
In North Carolina, a 4-year-old was killed and others were injured in a wreck on Thursday that occurred as Helene's outer bands were slamming the state. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a person died and another was hospitalized after a tree fell on a home just after 5 a.m. Friday, according to the Charlotte Fire Department.
“This was a storm related death,” Battalion Chief John Lipcsak, a spokesperson for the fire department, told USA TODAY.
In Rutherford County, North Carolina, officials issued evacuation orders after major flooding in the area pushed a dam to the brink of failure.
Rutherford County Emergency Management on Friday morning announced that "catastrophic" flows of water along the Broad River began overtopping the Lake Lure Dam, located about 35 miles southeast of Asheville. As a result, a mandatory evacuation order was issued impacting areas downstream, including River Creek Campground and homes in the Green Hill, Cleghorn and Union communities.
"RESIDENTS BELOW THE LAKE LURE DAM NEED TO EVACUATE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY!!" county emergency officials warned on Facebook. "DAM FAILURE IMMINIENT!! EVACUATE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY!!"
Towns across the Carolinas and north-central Georgia were battered through Friday morning as Helene swept over the region, leaving entire parts of Atlanta underwater and triggering evacuation warnings.
“All the apps on my phone kept screaming that there were flash flood warnings all night,” said Paul Thatcher, 38, owner of Franklin Terrace Bed and Breakfast in Franklin, North Carolina, about 70 miles southwest of Asheville.
A nearby mountain highway was ordered closed Friday because the edge of the road bank eroded away, causing the edge of the asphalt to break away, sliding down the valley, officials in Macon County, North Carolina, said on Facebook.
In Elberton, Georgia, near the state’s border with South Carolina, the Samuel Elbert Hotel lost power overnight and regained it around 10 a.m. Friday, front desk associate Deborah Morrison told USA TODAY.
On her way to work Friday morning, Morrison said she saw four homes damaged by fallen trees. One road in town was completely washed out around 6 a.m., and other roads were closed because of downed power lines or trees, she said. Traffic on some roads had to alternate using a single lane in either direction, leading to lines of cars, Morrison said.
“Everybody’s weathered it pretty fair, there’s no panicking going on,” Morrison, 63, said.
As Helene tore through the Southeast on Friday, tornadoes were a growing concern.
While tornadoes don’t typically get the same attention as hurricanes' ferocious winds or perilous storm surge, twisters are always one of the clear and present dangers as storms make landfall and trek inland.
"Hurricanes can produce tornadoes for two or three days after they move inland," said Roger Edwards, a lead forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center, who specializes in tornadoes. The highest risk warning the center has ever issued for a tornado situation related to a hurricane was for the third day after Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Alabama in September 2004. Forecasters were confident there would be a lot of super cells in Virginia, Maryland and even in the southern Pennsylvania area.
NOAA posted a tornado watch at 8:05 a.m. for portions of North Carolina, Eastern South Carolina, Southern Virginia and coastal areas nearby until at least 6 p.m. Friday. The tornado threat from Helene would shift northward, through an area about 110 miles on either side of a line from 40 miles west-southwest of Florence, South Carolina to 20 miles northeast of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the agency said.
Severe thunderstorms with hail were also possible, the agency said.
– Dinah Pulver, USA TODAY
Before Friday morning’s light showed boats in yards, homes shredded and docks thrown from the river into roads, 22 members of the Florida State Guard Special Missions Unit were wading through the mud on the south side of Steinhatchee River’s banks, looking for anyone who needed rescuing.
Hurricane Helene struck Thursday evening, making landfall not far away in Perry. In Steinhatchee on Friday, what was dry land only hours earlier was submerged in 40 to 50 inches of water, said Jordon Bowen, commander of the unit, as he gazed down a road that now looked more like a river.
“We have four different skiffs cruising through the neighborhood,” Bowen said, scanning the southeast side of Steinhatchee. “We’re searching all the area to make sure no one’s out there.”
So far, no one needed help. The search effort also included the National Guard, the Coast Guard, Taylor County sheriffs and Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 2. However, the overall situation looks bleak, according to Bowen.
“It’s destroyed,” Bowen said, indicating an area that’s about the size of 27 football fields. “Not accessible, debris, lots of hazards, downed power lines, houses cut in half."
– Anne Geggis, Palm Beach Post
Outside Perry, Florida, longtime resident Donna Parker, 80, watched as her grandson cut up a toppled palm tree with a chainsaw.
Parker has lived in her house since 1985 and has never left for a hurricane, the names of which she can still rattle off.
"The wind, it was bad. But I’ve had worse. We’ve really had worse. I’ve had it where my whole front yard was a lake,” she said.
“A lot of prayers, I tell you, when the wind come up. But the good Lord looked after us.”
While Helene was smashing into Florida, a new hurricane was coming to life in the Atlantic. Hurricane Isaac formed Friday morning far out in the ocean, almost 1,000 miles from Bermuda, the hurricane center said.
Although the hurricane is moving east across the open Atlantic far from land, swells generated by Isaac are affecting portions of the coast of Bermuda and could spread into the Azores by this weekend. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Elsewhere, forecasters were also watching a weather disturbance in the central Atlantic Ocean, one that has a 90% chance of becoming a named storm within the next couple of days. "A tropical depression or storm could form today while the system moves generally westward to west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph," the National Hurricane Center said. "The system is then forecast to slow down and turn north-northwestward by this weekend."
If it gets a name, it would be called Tropical Storm Joyce. As of Friday morning, the system poses no threat to any land areas.
Finally, ominously, forecasters were also turning their attention back to the Caribbean Sea, where yet another system appears to be brewing in a similar location to where Hurricane Helene formed. "Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for slow development while the system moves generally northwestward, potentially entering the Gulf of Mexico by the end of next week," the hurricane center said.
That system, if it strengthens to a storm, would be called Tropical Storm Kirk.
– Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
In Sanibel, Florida, a U.S. Coast Guard Air Station crew rescued a man and his dog after his sailboat became disabled and started taking on water off the Florida coast.
Crews found the disabled boat 25 miles off the island's coast after a mayday call came in Thursday.
A photo posted on X shows the Coast Guard rescuing the pair near a disabled vessel as high waters swirl around them.
Officials said the boater and the dog were airlifted to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
The storm came the closest to the barrier island around 3 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service reported.
– Natalie Alund, USA TODAY
Theme park-goers awaited official updates Friday morning announcing what parts of Walt Disney World may be closed.
Walt Disney World in Orlando was open Thursday, but a few parts of the massive theme park were closed because of to Hurricane Helene, including the Typhoon Lagoon water park and miniature golf course. Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party was also canceled for Thursday, the Fort Myers News-Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.
Disney World has closed less than a dozen times for hurricanes and national emergencies since its opening in 1971, according to the News-Press.
In Tampa Bay, residents said they saw vanished beaches, boats that ran into homes and businesses on fire.
"Complete devastation and loss here," Vikki Hudson, who lives in Largo about three miles from the coast, told USA TODAY on Friday. "The beaches are gone. Everything is under water. Boats pilled on top of houses and yards."
Hudson said Gulf Boulevard, which runs the St. Petersburg coastline from Pass-A-Grille historic district north to Clearwater, was "completely under water."
Hudson, who lives about 20 minutes from Treasure Island Beach where her two businesses are − The Island Girl Tiki Bar and The Island Girl Beach Rentals − said she has not been able to check on either because bridges are closed because of widespread flooding.
"We don’t know anything yet, we cannot get to any of the barrier islands," Hudson said.
– Natalie Alund, USA TODAY
Authorities in communities up and down the west coast of Florida said they were conducting water rescues on Friday as storm surge continued to inundate coastal areas.
In Pasco County, communications manager Tambrey Lane, said state and local agencies working together had rescued at least 135 people from rising waters as of 7:30 a.m. Friday, though she added that number might be as high as 200 or more.
Crews were still out as of 8:30 a.m. and rescues were ongoing, Lane said, and some areas remained inaccessible to rescue crews. More than 54,000 homes were under a mandatory evacuation order west of Interstate 19 and about 4,000 more homes east of the highway.
“It’s really bad,” said Michelle Welsh, an emergency communications officer with the county. “I think it’s the worst I’ve seen.”
Welsh, who’s lived in the area since 2007, said her single-wide trailer had no power, but her home, fortunately, was intact.
– Phaedra Trethan, USA TODAY
Residents in a section of St. Petersburg, a city of 261,000, were told not to flush toilets or take showers after the city shut off power at a sewer treatment plant.
The city said it made the “difficult decision” in order to “protect the plant from unprecedented storm surge," in a statement released Friday morning.
“Impacted residents/businesses should not drain water, take showers, do laundry or flush toilets,” the city said. “Draining water will cause sewage to back up into homes/businesses.”
Dawn broke Friday morning over a battered and sudden Big Bend region of Florida after hurricane Helene roared ashore overnight.
The sharp smell of pine filled the air, an artifact of the hundreds of snapped trees lining roads between St. Marks and Perry. Emergency workers flooding into the area, wove around downed trees along U.S Highway 98 as sheriff deputies, limited access, and patrolled for possible looting.
In the tiny community of St. Marks, about 20 miles south of Tallahassee, floodwaters had reached the front of the U.S Post Office building, about 3/10 of a mile from the St. Marks River, which flows into the Gulf a few miles downstream.Some residents had planned to ride out the storm in their homes or aboard fishing boats tied up at the marina. They could not be immediately reached Friday morning, although cellphone service in the area was working.
Authorities in the Atlanta metro area conducted rescues early Friday as Helene raced through the state, drenching a vast swath of the Southeast in multiple inches of rain.
About 25 people were rescued from a flooded apartment complex north of downtown Atlanta, multiple outlets reported, citing the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department.
Nearby Peachtree Creek entered major flood stage, reaching a height of more than 23 feet. Flood watches and warnings were active across the state of Georgia, where all counties are under a state of emergency declared by Gov. Brian Kemp.
About 4-6 inches of rain have fallen throughout north-central Georgia, including Atlanta and its surrounding counties, according to the weather service in Peachtree City, south of Atlanta. Forecasters say an additional 2 inches could fall throughout the morning hours.
Amber Handlin sat in front of her Lab mix Duckey in a makeshift shelter at the Leon High School gym. They were among the 546 people and 60 pets were in Leon County shelters Thursday afternoon.
Handlin lives in her car and has no friends or family nearby, and with several counties in the area under mandatory evacuation orders, she and the dog were both anxious as the storm approached.
Sydney Walter, Jacob Walsh and 1-year-old Graylan live near Florida State University's campus. "We're like nope, we are not even going to try it," Walter said. "I said, I have a baby so I'm not risking anything.”
The family, which is expecting a new member, decided to shelter at Leon's gym, citing its proximity to their home, the security it offers − and the most persuasive push, the mom said, was Gov. Ron DeSantis' encouragement.
– Alaijah Brown, Tallahassee Democrat
Read the full story:Public schools sheltering local evacuees from Helene
As Helene pummeled northwest Florida with over 100 mph winds and surges of water several feet high, Philip Tooke managed to punch out a terse but frantic message from his phone as he sat riding out the storm – not in his house, but on his boat.
“Lost power,” he wrote from St. Mark’s, 30 miles south of Tallahassee and 20 miles away from where Hurricane Helene hit the mouth of the Aucilla River. But, he adds: "Still floating."
Tooke, the 63-year-old owner of a local seafood market, and his brother remained aboard their fishing boats as Helene lashed the area. The pair are among the Floridians who took to the water for their survival. They did so despite evacuation orders made ahead of the Category 4 hurricane and grisly warnings that foretold death for those who stayed.
Read the full story here:Floridians ride out Hurricane Helene
– Michael Loria, Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
Contributing: Tallahassee Democrat; Reuters
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