Dozens dead and millions without power as Hurricane Helene hits US

Helene blew ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a category four hurricane late on Thursday, packing winds of 140mph and quickly moving through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, splintering homes and sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.

Western North Carolina was essentially cut off because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of interstate 40 and other roads. Video shows sections of Asheville underwater.

There were hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in east Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from the roof of a hospital that was surrounded by water from a flooded river.

The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Centre said.

Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect in parts of the southern and central Appalachians while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.

Among the at least 56 people killed in the storm were three firefighters, a woman and her one-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was struck by a falling tree.

In North Carolina, a lake featured in the movie Dirty Dancing overtopped a dam and surrounding areas were evacuated, although there were no immediate concerns it would fail.

People were also evacuated from Newport, Tennessee, a town of about 7,000 people, amid concerns about a dam near there, although officials later said the structure had not failed.

Tornadoes hit some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, that critically injured four people.

Atlanta received a record 11.12 inches of rain in 48 hours, the most the city has seen in a two-day period since record keeping began in 1878, Georgia’s Office of the State Climatologist said.

Some neighbourhoods were so badly flooded that only car roofs could be seen poking above the water.

All five who died in one Florida county were in areas where residents were told to evacuate, said Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff in Pinellas County in the St. Petersburg area.

Some who stayed ended up having to hide in their attics to escape the rising water. He said the death toll could rise as crews go door-to-door in flooded areas.

More deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas, including two South Carolina firefighters and a Georgia firefighter who died when trees struck their trucks.

Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin reported at least one death in his state.

President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency headed to the area.

The agency deployed more than 1,500 workers and they helped with 400 rescues by late on Friday morning.

Officials urged people who were trapped to call for rescuers and not tread floodwaters, warning they can be dangerous due to live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris.

In Georgia, an electrical utility group warned of “catastrophic” damage to utility infrastructure, with more than 100 high voltage transmission lines damaged.

Officials in South Carolina, where more than 40% of customers were without power, said crews had to cut their way through debris just to determine what was still standing in some places.

The hurricane came ashore near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles north-west of where Hurricane Idalia hit last year at nearly the same ferocity.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene appears to be greater than the combined effects of Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August.

A mudslide in the Appalachian Mountains washed out part of an interstate highway at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line.

Another slide hit homes in North Carolina and occupants had to wait more than four hours to be rescued, said Ryan Cole, the emergency services assistant director in Buncombe County.

Forecasters warned of flooding in North Carolina that could be worse than anything seen in the past century. The Connecticut Army National Guard sent a helicopter to help.

Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.