Last Thursday, a category four hurricane made landfall near Perry, Florida. The hurricane sped through Florida and into Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee by Friday. After causing significant damage across Florida's Big Bend region in the form of a record breaking storm surge and 90-100mph winds, the storm dropped 1-2+ feet of rain across the south as it stalled out due to a blocking high across the northeast.
Helene caused significant flooding and damage hundreds of miles from the coastline. A big factor in the devastation across the southern Appalachians was terrain enhancement with the rainfall. The more mountainous an area is, the less rain the area can handle before flooding problems emerge. When an area such as the Appalachians see massive amounts of rain at once, all that water flows down the slopes and right into the towns in the valleys below.
Another big issue for North Carolina in particular was the fact that a stalled frontal boundary led to multiple inches of rain and flooding the day before Helene arrived. These two events combined led to over 30 inches of rain falling over portions of the state and rainfall up to a foot across many areas in the south east.
Last week, thousands of water rescues took place across the region as the sheer level of flooding caught many off guard. At one point on Friday, over a dozen flash flood emergencies were active across the region. These alerts are rare and reserved only for the most dire flooding situations. For perspective, there were over 3,700 flash flood warnings issued across the US in 2023, of these, only 29 were upgraded to emergencies. That's just 0.7% of all flash flood warnings.
This level of flash flooding has very tragically led to many deaths across the region. The death toll is beginning to close in on 200, with many still missing. This number will unfortunately remain fluid and continue to change. Rescue and recovery efforts remain ongoing a week after the storm.
Crews have continued to go door to door in communities completely cut off by damage. Many communities have been completely destroyed with supplies slowly trickling in by helicopter. Supplies to some mountain towns are being delivered by mule as roads remain destroyed. Two million meals and one million gallons of clean water have arrived thus far. Getting supplies to shelters as well as search and rescue remain the first priority for many areas.
Crews from New England are working in the south to help with these efforts. Vermont Swift water Rescue teams arrived in Florida late last week and have since moved to North Carolina. Crews from across the United States responded to Vermont during last year's devastating flood. This includes a rescue crew from North Carolina, which deployed a team to Vermont before the flooding even began. New England utility crews are also working in the south amid what will be a weeks-long outage for some.
Many communities face a years-long recovery effort, with the work only just beginning. Roads have continued to be cleared with electricity, water and cell phone service slowly coming back online, though many remain without these resources. For communities without these resources, sharing information has been difficult. In Black Mountain, North Carolina, leaders shouted updates from picnic tables in the town square. Some residents took notes to pass out to neighbors.
In Asheville, volunteers have continued to go door to door to try to find people who have been unreachable due to the lack of phone and internet service. Asheville Public Schools remain closed until further notice a week after the storm.
While the schools didn't sustain damage, power remains out, some schools are being used to house rescue crews and students and staff remain isolated in places. Other districts in western North Carolina remain closed as well, with some still being assessed for damage while others are trying to get food as well as have water and power restored before reopening.
Over 400 remain closed across North Carolina as of Wednesday. The state's department of transportation says the full scope of repairs is not yet known. Gradual progress in reopening major routes have occurred, including Interstates 26 and 40 south and east of Asheville, primarily for those evacuating the western part of the state. The westbound side of Interstate 40 was reopened on Wednesday in the area. US 421 has also reopened in Boone, North Carolina.
Other road projects have already been confirmed to take months to complete. Dozens of roads will remain closed for weeks or months. Among the most pressing and challenging road issues is Interstate 40 near the North Carolina-Tennessee border. A portion of the highway in this area collapsed into the Pigeon River Gorge. This section of highway will likely not be reopened for months.
Over 1 million customers across the southeast remain without power as of Thursday morning. This includes over 300,000 in both North and South Carolina. Restoring all power will continue to be a long process as many roads that the lines run along remain closed and damaged.
On top of all this devastation across the interior south, Florida's Big Bend was hit by their third hurricane in just over one year. Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida as a category four storm late Thursday night last week. Flooding in the form of coastal storm surge has presented Florida with its biggest challenge. In Cedar Key, a gauge measured a surge of nine feet, which is nearly three feet above Idalia's record, which occurred in 2023. Hundreds of miles from the center of the storm, Tampa Bay saw a surge of up to seven feet.
Many seaside communities were leveled by the surge as recovery from Idalia in 2023 remained ongoing. Debris removal and power outages restoration remain among the biggest priorities across Florida. Supply distribution points have been set up in Keaton Beach, Dekle Beach, Cedar Island and Dark Island. As of Thursday morning, Florida is seeing just over 20,000 outages. Helene was a massive, wide-reaching storm that will take a long time to fully recover from across the southeast.
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