Helene flooding is 'catastrophic natural disaster' in Western NC

Dozens were killed. Hospital-goers scrambled to rooftops to be whisked away in helicopters. Mayors frantically told citizens to flee. And inmates were desperately removed from a jail directly in the path of floodwaters.

These were among countless harrowing moments as Helene brought a cascade of destruction across the Southeast. The record-breaking storm hit Florida as a hurricane with wind speeds of 140 mph that flattened buildings. It has since weakened to a post-tropical cyclone with 25 mph winds, as floodwaters besieged parts of North Carolina and Tennessee.

Hundreds of road closures cut off Western North Carolina amid what Buncombe County has billed as a “catastrophic natural disaster,” in a morning news release from the county. There was no cellular coverage Saturday morning in the county of over 250,000 people. In Asheville, one video posted by ABC 11 showed a house floating away and collapsing into raging floodwaters.

"This is looking to be Buncombe County's own Hurricane Katrina," County Manager Avril Pinder said during an afternoon news briefing, referring to the 2005 storm that led to widespread flooding, destruction and deaths in New Orleans. 

Gov. Roy Cooper said 10 people had died in North Carolina due to the storm, in a news release on Saturday night. More than 200 others had been rescued by water and helicopter rescue crews who will continue operations through the night.

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Across the border in Tennessee, officials urged some 100,000 residents to seek higher ground Saturday morning as the Nolichucky Dam in Greene County was on the brink of failure, a warning reiterated by the National Weather Service Saturday morning. Hours later, NWS ended its "flash flood emergency." In a Saturday afternoon update, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said the dam remained intact and there were no reports of dam failures. A flood warning was in effect to cover the effects of high water.

The flooding concerns come as President Joe Biden approved emergency disaster relief aid for Tennessee on Saturday.

Meanwhile, eye-popping rainfall totals were measured in the North Carolina mountains, including 29.6 inches at Busick and 24.2 inches at Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River and a landmark along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Helene made landfall at about 11:10 p.m. ET Thursday near Perry, Florida, becoming the first known Category 4 storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since records began in 1851. The storm continued its push across western Kentucky on Saturday, and was expected to move slowly southeast, then east along the Kentucky-Tennessee border through the weekend, the National Hurricane Center said.

“It’s destroyed,” Jordon Bowen of the Florida State Guard Special Missions Unit told The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, referencing the area where Helene made landfall. “Not accessible, debris, lots of hazards, downed power lines, houses cut in half."

Dozens of deaths have been attributed to Helene’s onslaught, according to authorities and media reports across the Southeast. A tally of the deaths approached 50 on Saturday morning, as officials have said they expected the death toll to continue rising as they go door-to-door in the aftermath of the storm.

Biden was briefed about the deaths, property damage and storm's impact on multiple states by a top official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the White House's homeland security adviser, the White House said.

More than 3 million customers remained without power on Saturday afternoon across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully restored. The worst outages were in South Carolina with more than 1 million homes and businesses without power, and Georgia where 750,000 were without power. Nearly 620,000 were without power in North Carolina as of Saturday evening.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis authorized the Florida National Guard to send air assets to North Carolina in support of the hurricane response.

Friday:Stranded people at East Tennessee hospital rescued

Multiple deaths in Buncombe County as rescue crews recover bodies

Multiple people died in Buncombe County amid the damage and havoc caused by Helene, officials said in a Saturday afternoon news briefing.

"It is a catastrophic event, but now we are sad to report, it is a fatal event," said Winston Parrish, chaplain for Buncombe County Sheriff's Department. "Our emergency crews are not just conducting rescues at this time, but they are also recovering people who have perished in this tragedy."

Officials did not say how many people have died in Buncombe County due to the storm.

Officials said search and rescue operations in the Western North Carolina community would continue through the night. Some exhausted rescue workers have conducted operations with little to no sleep over the past 72 hours, officials said.

“We have biblical devastation through the county. We’ve had biblical flooding here,” said Ryan Cole, the assistant director of Buncombe County Emergency Services.

He said the sheriff's department is working to try to prepare information on the number of deaths.

Asheville Police Chief Michael Lamb said his department had a list of about 60 people with relatives they had not been able to reach. His department planned "welfare checks" at homes to check those individuals.

The storm appeared to cause severe damage to Asheville's water system that will require "extensive repairs," said Ben Woody, Asheville's assistant city manager.

The county was working to open water distribution sites and planned to announce the sites when they get water and are open, said County Manager Avril Pinder. None had opened as of 4 p.m. Saturday.

“We expect to have that up and running by tomorrow,” Pinder said. “We continue to be without water, for most, without power and without cell service.”

Woody reminded people to boil water vigorously for at least one minute before using it as drinking water.

This is a “generational weather event,” he said. “Although providing an accurate timeline is impossible, I want to be clear that service restoration will be an extended effort.”

The city of Asheville also announced an overnight curfew – from 7:30 p.m. Saturday to 7:30 a.m. Sunday –because most of the city remained without power on Saturday.

- Asheville Citizen Times

UNC Asheville cancels classes as downtown hotels fill up

Classes at the University of North Carolina at Asheville are canceled until Oct. 9, the university's student alert system announced on Saturday.

UNC Asheville spokesperson Michael Strysick told the Citizen Times that approximately a quarter of students living on campus left before the storm, leaving around 1,200 still on campus. He said school staff went door-to-door after the storm performing checks on students.

Strysick said UNC Asheville is coordinating with other UNC system schools and is looking into bringing mobile Wi-Fi to campus.

"We're doing the best we can under difficult circumstances," Strysick said.

In downtown Asheville, nearly all downtown hotels are booked, and any with remaining availability have no running water and aren’t accepting more guests.

Jeff Elstro, the general manager of the Flat Iron Hotel, said the hotel has no water, no internet and is not taking guests. Yesterday, locals who went to the hotel searching for accommodations were unable to be helped. Most people at the hotel today are trying to leave, he said.

Jordan Hicks, a valet at the Restoration, said all 60 of the hotel’s rooms were full.

Other hotels downtown, like the Haywood Park Hotel, have no vacancies or running water. The Downtown Inn and Suites was closed because it did not have water.

The Cambria Hotel Downtown Asheville, which posted on Facebook that it has a displacement rate for locals affected by Tropical Storm Helene, does not have rooms available.

- Asheville Citizen Times

Flooding isolates Western North Carolina; hundreds of roads closed

Officials in Asheville, North Carolina, have billed Helene as a “catastrophic natural disaster,” as Saturday dawned with all rivers still at “major flood status," per an 8 a.m. news release from Buncombe County.

There was no cellular coverage as of Saturday morning in the county of over 250,000 people. Town officials in Buncombe County's Black Mountain reported that most internet, cell phone and landline access was down, and the local water system was non-operational, according to a social media post Saturday.

All roads in the western part of the state "should be considered closed," the North Carolina Department of Transportation said Saturday. Across the state, more than 400 roads were closed.

Neighboring Haywood County announced a curfew between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. and urged residents to stay off the roads and conserve fuel.

Since Sept. 26, Buncombe County has received over 5,000 calls to 911. The county urged people not to call to report downed trees, power lines or outages.

The region has seen more than 130 water rescue missions.

“I cannot stress enough how important it is to stay away from the water,” said Buncombe County Fire Marshal Kevin Tipton. “There are down power lines in the water, sewage in the water, and an incredible amount of debris. It is not safe.”

The 911 center said it would not be providing updates on road conditions, power restoration or internet service.

Public safety officials urged people to be cautious on the roads. The Highway Patrol urged drivers to avoid the eastbound lanes on Interstate 40 near Asheville.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol said drivers should take I-40 to Interstate 240 to Interstate 26 if attempting to go south from Buncombe County. Interstate 26 reopened from Asheville to South Carolina.

Motorists were advised to avoid the area's highways and roads for non-emergency travel.

Most airlines at Asheville’s regional airport announced plans to cancel flights Saturday, officials announced on social media. The airport is open and flights can take off and land, but there are “operational difficulties” due to outages and staff are unable to get to work, officials said.

- Asheville Citizen Times

Damage predicted to cost billions

Helene's catastrophic winds and flooding caused somewhere between $95 and $110 billion in damage and economic loss, making it one of the costliest storms in history, according to an early estimate by AccuWeather.

The estimate includes damage to homes, businesses, roads, vehicles and the effects of power outages, along with lost wages, flight delays, damage to the supply chain and more, AccuWeather said in a release.

Other catastrophic storms include Hurricane Ian in 2022, which caused about $180 to $210 billion in damage; Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017 with a combined total of about $270 billion; Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with $210 billion; and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with damages of about $320 billion. AccuWeather's estimates have been adjusted for inflation.

Why did Helene cause so much rain?

A confluence of weather patterns over the eastern U.S. set up the historic flooding that forced people from their homes in the dead of night Friday along the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, as officials warned of dam failures and raging torrents ravaged communities.

In several forecast discussions earlier in the week, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologists described a band of moisture ahead of Helene. This is called a predecessor event and they’ve been documented in the past to cause heavy rains ahead of the arrival of tropical storms and hurricanes.

Along the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday, almost 10 inches of rain fell in Asheville and 8 inches in Tryon, according to preliminary weather service data. Another 6 inches fell over the two days in Bristol-Johnson, Tennessee and more than 4 inches in Knoxville.

Then Helene’s massive circulation moved into the mix with more rain, and then transitioned into a post-tropical cyclone. Recent studies have shown some hurricanes are soaking up more moisture from the warming Gulf of Mexico, further enhancing rainfall totals.

By Friday evening, record-breaking rainfall totals were reported in some Southeast locations, with more than a foot of rain across swaths of Georgia and South Carolina. Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia saw widespread amounts ranging from 4 to 7 inches.

Rain flowing into rivers in the mountainous areas quickly turned into cataclysmic flooding, setting a record high on the Pigeon River at Newport, Tennessee. In Asheville, record high levels were set on the French Broad River and the Swannanoa River near the Biltmore estate.

At least three of the flood level records broken Friday were set more than a century ago, when the lingering remnants of one tropical system in July 1916 were followed by another, producing heavy rain.

‒ Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY

Death toll continues to climb

Deaths from dangerous weather conditions unleashed by Helene have been reported across the storm's path, and authorities expect the death toll to continue to rise.

In Florida, at least 11 deaths have been attributed to the storm, Gov. Ron DeSantis said in an update on Saturday morning. 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. DeSantis said Friday 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's office said at least 15 people were killed during the storm, including a first responder. "One of our finest lost his life trying to save others," Kemp said at a news conference.

The first responder was Vernon “Leon” Davis, assistant chief of the Blackshear Fire Department, Pierce County Coroner William Wilson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Davis died when a tree fell on his city truck shortly before 1:30 a.m. Friday. Also killed in Georgia were a 27-year-old woman and her 1-month-old twin boys, who were in bed together when a tree crashed through their mobile home, McDuffie County Coroner Paul Johnson told the outlet.

At least 19 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.

Virginia also recorded its first storm death from a falling tree and building collapse in Craig County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in a video on his Facebook page Friday.

Florida towns flattened under record-breaking winds

Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend first, crashing in with sustained wind speeds of 140 mph. The small area along the state’s Gulf Coast near Tallahassee has seen many bracing storms over the years but none with the force of Helene.

“It’s total devastation,” Scott Peters, the owner of a bar flattened by the storm in Florida, told USA TODAY. “I’ve got to start completely over.”

Peters, the owner of Crabbie Dad's bar, is among those whose property the storm flattened at Steinhatchee, a small town just dozens of miles from where Helene made landfall. 

The town took on a record-breaking 9.63 feet of storm surge, leaving what was dry land submerged in 40 to 50 inches of water, according to Bowen of the State Guard.

John Kujawski, another local, told USA TODAY the storm reopened wounds from Hurricane Idalia, which whacked the town in August 2023. Roofs that had been repaired were destroyed all over again, docks tossed ashore, and boats overturned and jammed into marina pilings.

The storm wrecked dozens of homes at Horseshoe Beach, another coastal town south of Steinhatchee. Some of the homes were shoved off their concrete footings, while others had their roofs flayed off by the wind.

Helene ripped away the staircases to Bill and Debbie Dotson’s home so the couple is staying in a tent on the ground beneath it. The house, like many in the area, is built atop concrete footings in case of flood waters. 

The Dotsons said they thought Helene caused more damage to the area than Idalia, which destroyed about 40 houses. The 2023 storm also destroyed one of their staircases and damaged another, a $15,000 repair job a local contractor had only recently finished.

Helene is the couple’s fourth hurricane since moving to the area in 2021

“We had the discussion about hurricanes but you never imagine something like this. You just don’t,” said Debbie Dotson, 63. “We sure are grateful that it’s standing.”

Deluge of rain in Tennessee

Helene’s winds died down as the storm bore into Tennessee and North Carolina, but it dumped enough water to nearly swallow a hospital, send rivers soaring to record highs and prompt local officials to urge citizens to flee for high ground ahead of potential dam failures.

Officials from Florida to as far north as Virginia urged people to make for higher ground.

The Nolichucky River near the North Carolina border came close to sweeping away Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee. Rising waters forced 54 hospital staffers and patients to head for the roof to be whisked away aboard helicopters and boats. 

"The hospital has been engulfed by extremely dangerous and rapidly moving water," Ballad Health wrote in a cry for help on X earlier in the day and hours before conditions calmed down enough for rescue vehicles to move into the area.

The Pigeon River running through Newport blew past record levels to reach a height of 27 feet. The nearby French Broad River was also expected to almost reach record levels by Saturday morning. 

Surging water levels in downtown Newport prompted officials to evacuate the jail, which sits at the bank of the Pigeon. Approximately 60 inmates were taken from the Cocke County Jail to the Jefferson County Jail, a representative for Jefferson County said. 

Contributing: Trevor Hughes, Christopher Cann, Dinah Voyles Pulver, Eduardo Cuevas and Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY; Reuters; Knoxville News Sentinel; Asheville Citizen Times