Tropical Storm Helene is triggering dangerous rain and flooding across the US South, where it has killed at least four people and cut power to nearly 4 million customers after coming ashore in Florida as a major hurricane.
More than 5.2 million people face a moderate or high risk of excessive rain Friday as Helene, with winds of 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour, pushes inland, said Scott Kleebauer, a forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. The heaviest rain will now be shifting into Tennessee and Kentucky after pummeling portions of Georgia and the Carolinas.
“This will be one of the most significant weather events to happen in the western portions of the area in the modern era,” the National Weather Service said as the storm dumped rain across the southern Appalachian Mountains, where rivers have already begun flooding and could reach record heights.
There were at least four storm-related deaths, according to the Associated Press. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said late Thursday that the first fatality was in Tampa, where a sign fell into a car on the highway.
In Atlanta, where a rare flash-flood emergency has been issued, Peachtree Creek is at major flood stage and has risen by more than 21 feet since Wednesday. The Georgia city has seen nearly 8 inches of rain in the last two days and heavy showers will continue through midday.
Helene came ashore late Thursday Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with 140 mile-per-hour winds, near the mouth of the Aucilla River in Florida’s Big Bend region on its western coast. That’s close to where major Hurricane Idalia struck in August 2023, the US National Hurricane Center said.
The deadly storm has shuttered transportation, threatened crops and is so massive that rain could fall from Springfield, Illinois, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – a distance of more than 700 miles. Damages and losses may reach $15 billion, according to Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research.
From Florida to Virginia, almost 4 million customers were without power as of 8:30 a.m. New York time, PowerOutage.us said. The most extensive outages will likely occur in the Appalachians.
“Residents in these areas should be prepared for the possibility of long-duration power outages,” the hurricane center said.
About 700 flights into or out of the US were canceled on Friday, with Charlotte, North Carolina, Tampa and Atlanta being hardest hit, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service.
Several more inches of rain will likely fall across the southern Appalachian Mountains, where high terrain and narrow valleys raise the risk for flash flooding and landslides through midday, the weather service said. The worst of the downpours will push into Tennessee and Kentucky and throughout parts of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, according to Kleebauer.
In addition to the devastation wrought by Helene, Tropical Storm John has brought nearly a week’s worth of flooding to Mexico’s Pacific coast, including the states of Guerrero, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Michoacan. The storm has clung to the shoreline, dragging heavy rain into mountainous areas inland.
(c) Washington Post