PERRY, Fla. (AP) 鈥� For movement in the new cycle
Massive rains from powerful left people stranded, without shelter and awaiting rescue, as the cleanup began from a tempest that killed at least 64 people, caused widespread destruction across the U.S. Southeast and knocked out power to millions of people.
鈥淚鈥檝e never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now,鈥� said Janalea England of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the state鈥檚 rural Big Bend, as she turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn鈥檛 get insurance on their homes.
Helene in Florida鈥檚 Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 140 mph (225 kph).
From there, it quickly moved through Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it 鈥渓ooks like a bomb went off鈥� after viewing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air. Weakened, Helene then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.
was isolated because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. All those closures delayed the start of the East Tennessee State University football game against The Citadel because the Buccaneers' drive to Charleston, South Carolina, took 16 hours.
There have been hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where were plucked by helicopter from a hospital rooftop Friday. And the rescues continued into the following day in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where part of Asheville was under water.
鈥淭o say this caught us off guard would be an understatement,鈥� said Quentin Miller, the county sheriff.
Asheville resident Mario Moraga said it was 鈥渉eartbreaking鈥� to see the damage in the Biltmore Village neighborhood and neighbors have been going house to house to check on each other and offer support.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no cell service here. There鈥檚 no electricity,鈥� he said.
While there have been deaths in the county, Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones said he wasn鈥檛 ready to report specifics, partially because downed cell towers hindered efforts to contact next of kin. Relatives put out desperate pleas for help on Facebook.
The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.
It unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. One community, Spruce Pine, was doused with over 2 feet (0.6 meters) of rain from Tuesday through Saturday.
And in Atlanta, 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain fell over 48 hours, the most the city has seen over two days since record keeping began in 1878.
President Joe Biden said Saturday that Helene鈥檚 devastation has been 鈥渙verwhelming鈥� and pledged to send help. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, making federal funding available for affected individuals.
With at least 25 killed in South Carolina, Helene is the deadliest tropical cyclone for the state since Hurricane Hugo killed 35 people when it came ashore just north of Charleston in 1989. Deaths also have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
Moody鈥檚 Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage. AccuWeather鈥檚 preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Helene in the U.S. is between $95 billion and $110 billion.
Evacuations began before the storm hit and continued as lakes , including one in North Carolina that forms a lake featured in the movie 鈥淒irty Dancing.鈥� Helicopters were used to rescue some people from flooded homes.
Among the 11 confirmed deaths in Florida were nine people who drowned in their homes in a mandatory evacuation area on the Gulf Coast in Pinellas County, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.
None of the victims were from Taylor County, which is where the storm made landfall. It near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of where last year at nearly the same ferocity.
Taylor County is in Florida鈥檚 Big Bend, went years without taking a direct hit from a hurricane. But after Idalia and two other storms in a little over a year, the area is beginning to feel like a hurricane superhighway.
鈥淚t鈥檚 bringing everybody to reality about what this is now with disasters,鈥� said John Berg, 76, a resident of Steinhatchee, a small fishing town and weekend getaway.
Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.
Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year .
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Payne reported from Perry, and Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Seth Borenstein in New York; Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; and Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed.
Stephen Smith, Kate Payne And Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press
