Helene is downgraded to a tropical storm after causing more than 33 deaths

Emergency crews were rushing Friday to rescue people trapped in flooded homes after Helene hit the coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane in Florida, generating a massive storm surge and knocking out power to millions of customers in several states.

At least 33 people have been reported dead in four states in the southeastern United States, where the storm continues to track.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said dozens of people were still trapped in storm-damaged buildings. The authorities “had difficulty getting to the site”, so teams equipped with chainsaws “were working to clear the roads”, Mr. Kemp said at a press conference.

The storm made landfall Thursday evening in a sparsely populated area with maximum sustained winds of 225 km/h in the rural area of Big Bendhome to fishing villages and vacation retreats where the Panhandle and the Florida peninsula meet.

The damage extended hundreds of miles to the north, with flooding as far away as North Carolina. Several hospitals in southern Georgia were without power and another in Tennessee was closed.

Videos posted on social media showed downpours in Perry, Florida, near where Helene made landfall, and siding torn off buildings. A local news channel showed a house that had toppled over.

It’s really heartbreakingsaid Stephen Tucker, after the hurricane tore the brand new roof off his church in Perry, Florida. It had to be replaced after Hurricane Idalia last year.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the damage caused by Helene in the region appears to be greater than the combined damage from Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August. It’s demoralizinghe acknowledged.

Breakdowns and deaths

President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors as the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency headed to the region. The agency deployed more than 1,500 workers and participated in 400 rescues by late morning.

Most of those stranded in places like Tampa were only accessible by boat, with authorities elsewhere warning that the water could contain live electrical wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris.

If you are trapped and need help, please call emergency responders – DO NOT TRY TO FACE FLOOD WATERS YOURSELFwarned the sheriff’s office in a message posted on Facebook.

More than 4 million homes and businesses were without power Friday morning in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, according to poweroutage.uswhich tracks information from utilities.

Brian Kemp said at least 11 people in his state had been killed. At least 14 others died in South Carolina, seven in Florida and one in North Carolina.

Among the dead, one person was killed in Florida when a sign fell on his car. Two more people were killed by a possible tornado in southern Georgia as the storm approached.

The hurricane made landfall near the mouth of the Aucilla River on Florida’s Gulf Coast. This location was just 20 miles northwest of where Idalia struck last year with almost the same ferocity and caused considerable damage.

Cities as far away as Atlanta were flooded, with only mailboxes and car roofs protruding above the water in some neighborhoods. Mr. Kemp mobilized 1,000 additional National Guard troops, on top of the 500 he had mobilized earlier.

As the eye of the hurricane passed near Valdosta, a city of 55,000 near the Florida border, dozens of people gathered early Friday in a darkened hotel lobby. As the wind howled outside, water poured from the light fixtures in the lobby dining room.

Weakened into a tropical storm

Shortly after crossing land, Hurricane Helene weakened to a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds dropping to 70 mph. As of 11 a.m. Friday, the storm was about 100 miles (165 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta, moving north at 32 mph with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported. Miami.

Meteorologists expected the system to continue to weaken as it moves toward Tennessee and Kentucky and dumps heavy rain on the Appalachian Mountains, with a risk of mudslides and flash flooding.

Even before landfall, the storm’s wrath was widely felt, with sustained strong tropical storm winds and hurricane-force gusts along the west coast of Florida. Authorities pleaded with residents to evacuate.

Please write your name, date of birth and important information on your arm or leg with a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and your family will be informedwe asked. The cautionary advice is similar to that given by other officials during previous hurricanes.

Beyond Florida, up to 10 inches of rain fell in the North Carolina mountains, and up to 14 inches more are possible before the deluge ends, paving the way for flooding that meteorologists, could be worse than anything seen in the last century. Evacuations were underway in several areas of the state Friday and about 300 roads were closed.

The Connecticut Army National Guard sent a helicopter to assist the state.

It’s terrible. I don’t know if I’ll ever see something like this againsaid Spencer Tate Andrews of Asheville, North Carolina.

Helene submerged parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, flooding streets and toppling trees as it passed offshore and brushed past the resort town of Cancun. In western Cuba, Helene knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses as it grazed the island.

Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on 1^is June. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year due to record ocean temperatures.

Helene could be the worst storm to hit a major southern interior city in 35 years, according to Marshall Shepherd, a professor of meteorology at the University of Georgia.