Helene’s death toll tops 100 as Southeast emerges from storm damage

The death toll linked to the storm rose to around 100 in the southeast on Sunday as authorities scrambled to provide air supplies, restore power and clear roads after heavy downpours. Helene leaving people stranded and without shelter.

Helene left at least 116 people dead, CBS News has confirmed, and caused widespread devastation.

Thirty fatalities were reported in Buncombe County, North Carolina – in one of the states hardest hit by the storm.

Helene lost power to several million customers. More than two million were still without power early Monday, according to utility tracker Find Energy.

But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Friday night that 99% of the state’s homes and businesses have power restored.

Helene fell ashore Florida’s Big Bend area Friday night is dangerous Category 4 tornado. Helene is the third hurricane to hit the region in the last 13 months.

From there, it quickly moved to Georgia, where Governor Brian Kemp said Saturday that it “looked like a bomb went off” after seeing shattered homes and highways covered in aerial debris.

As it weakened, Helene then lashed the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending rivers and streams over their banks and eroding dams.

At least 116 people in several states have been killed by Helene, a monster storm that left a path of destruction more than 600 miles long.

In North Carolina, 46 people died, officials confirmed to CBS News, ranging in age from 4 to 75. One person died in a collision on a flooded road, Governor Roy Cooper said, while another died when a tree fell on a house, according to the Agency Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services.

At least 25 people were killed in Georgia, according to a spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. A first responder was among the dead, Kemp said earlier Friday.

In South Carolina, 27 people died from the storm, officials confirmed to CBS News. The deaths included two firefighters and two people killed when trees fell on homes.

In Florida, 13 people died, officials confirmed to CBS News, including 10 people who died in Pinellas County. Across the country, crews have performed thousands of rescue missions.

“This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response,” Cooper said at a news conference Sunday. He added that “we know there will be more” deaths as rescuers reach isolated areas.

Four weather-related deaths were confirmed in Tennessee, one in Johnson County, one in Unicoi County and two in Cocke County.

In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin confirmed at a press conference on Friday that one person was killed.

The National Weather Service on Saturday reported the highest rainfall totals from Helene for every state. In rural North Carolina, the Busick area of ​​North Carolina has received the highest total rainfall, with a staggering 30.78 inches so far.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who traveled to Florida on Saturday to survey the damage, said in “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” the “historic flood” in North Carolina it was beyond what anyone in the area could have planned.

“I don’t know if anyone can be fully prepared for the amount of flooding and mudslides we’re experiencing right now,” he said.

Asheville, North Carolina, was particularly hard hit as rising floods destroyed roads, led to power outages and shut down cell phone service.

On Sunday, Cooper asked residents to avoid traveling on roads in western North Carolina.

“A lot of people were heard because the road was impassable,” he said.

President Biden has issued emergency declarations for Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, all of which free up federal resources to go toward recovery and relief efforts.

More than 800 FEMA personnel have been sent to the area to help with the response, the White House said.

Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage. AccuWeather’s preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Helene in the US is between $95 billion and $110 billion.

In East Tennessee, flooding is so severe that two dams are at risk of failure. The Cocke County town of Newport was evacuated as a result, but both dams eventually held.

“Rescues have been done, efforts have been made, some people are stranded on roofs and other things,” said Cocke County Sheriff CJ Ball.

The Gulf Beach community of Keaton, Florida, was still recovering from Idalia and Debby when Helene appeared to deliver the knockout blow. Taylor County officials estimate that 90% of the homes in Keaton Beach are gone.

And further south in Cedar Key, officials say it’s not safe for residents or rescue workers.

In the waters off Florida’s Sanibel Island, a Coast Guard crew made a daring rescue, rescuing a man and a dog stranded on a 36-foot sailboat.

In the Big Bend fishing village of Steinhatchee, storm-weary residents pray that Helene will miss them, but the pier and waterfront restaurant that once stood here are now gone.

Storm waves push buildings off their foundations. Linda Wicker lost the restaurant she owned for 20 years. He seemed even more shaken by what he saw in his village, houses torn apart by the wind and deep water.

“If you let it play with your mind, you can’t get there,” Wicker said. “You can’t. It’s horrible.”

In historic Davis Islands in Tampa, streets are under water and boats have washed ashore. One house caught fire. Marie Terry, who lives next door, would have been in the neighborhood unless her daughter forced her to evacuate.

“I was shocked,” Terry told CBS News. “It’s just a beautiful house, and looking at it like this, it’s like what could happen?”

In Atlanta, an apartment complex was flooded, and neighbors had to come to the rescue. Sam Oni, 83, is one of them.

“But I thought I would get away with it, but I didn’t … and I owe a lot to my neighbors,” Oni told CBS News.

Serena Rodriguez was lying in bed in her Atlanta home when she started floating, but she wasn’t dreaming.

“It’s like all around, the water, it’s like an island,” Rodriguez told CBS News. “… It’s usually a nightmare. Yeah, I’m crazy. Like, I can’t believe it. I’m totally shocked. I’ve never experienced anything like that.”

Annie Sloan, who is one of them, told CBS News Miami: “I decided to come to the shelter because I live alone and actually my son came to take me to Georgia, but we discovered the hurricane going to Georgia as well, and I decided to just come here and the shelter because my husband passed, and I don’t want at home alone.”

Most gas stations in the Tallahassee area are either shut down or out of gas. CBS News senior weather and climate producer David Parkinson described Helene as a “gargantuan” storm.

NASA shared video of the hurricane as seen from the International Space Station, showing the size of the storm as it hit the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday evening.

The extremely warm waters of the Gulf fuel hurricanes

Record warm water in the Gulf almost certainly acts like jet fuel in intensifying storms. Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Sciences, recently noted that ocean heat content in the Gulf of Mexico is a record high. warm water is a necessary ingredient to strengthen the tropical system.

Sea surface temperatures in Helene’s path were as warm as 89 degrees Fahrenheit – 2 to 4 degrees above normal.

These record water temperatures have been made more likely by human-caused climate change, according to Climate Central. The North Atlantic Ocean as a whole has recorded record warm temperatures in 2024, storing 90% of excess heat from climate change produced by greenhouse gas pollution.

Helene is the eighth storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1.

Jason Allen and Dave Malkoff contributed to this report.