The death toll from powerful Storm Helene has reached at least 63, authorities said, as responders, hampered by washed-out bridges and debris-strewn roads, searched house-by-house for survivors in devastated parts of several southern and eastern US states.
At least 24 people died in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, 10 in North Carolina and one in Virginia, according to updated reports from local authorities and media tallied by AFP.
Helene slammed into Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and surged north, gradually weakening but leaving a path of destruction.
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Federal emergencies were declared in six states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee — with more than 800 personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) deployed to assist local officials.
More than 2.7 million customers were still without electricity across 10 states from Florida in the southeast to Indiana in the midwest as of Saturday night, according to tracker poweroutage.us.
Helene originally slammed into Florida’s northern Gulf shore with powerful winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour. Even as a weakened post-tropical cyclone, it has wreaked havoc.
Massive flooding was reported in Asheville, in western North Carolina. Governor Ray Cooper called it “one of the worst storms in modern history” to hit his state.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene exceeded that of hurricanes Idalia and Debby, which both hit the same region southeast of Tallahassee in the last 13 months.
“It’s a real gut punch to those communities,” DeSantis told Fox News.
September has been an unusually wet month around the world, with scientists linking some extreme weather events to human-caused global warming.