Hurricane Helene devastated Florida and the whole southeastern United States on Friday, killing at least 44 people in four states, breaking trees like twigs, tearing apart homes, and sending rescue personnel on desperate missions to save people from floodwaters.
Three firefighters were killed, as were a lady and her 1-month-old twins, as well as an 89-year-old woman whose home was struck by a falling tree. According to the Associated Press, the fatalities happened in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
The Category 4 hurricane knocked out power to some hospitals in southern Georgia, and Gov. Brian Kemp stated that authorities used chainsaws to clear debris and unblock roadways.
When the storm made landfall late Thursday in a sparsely populated section of Florida’s rural Big Bend, home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet, its highest sustained winds were 140 mph.
Moody’s Analytics predicts $15 to $26 billion in property damage.
The damage stretched hundreds of miles north to northeast Tennessee, where a “dangerous rescue situation” by helicopter unfolded after 54 people were evacuated to the roof of the Unicoi County Hospital as water swiftly swamped the institution.
According to Ballad Health, everyone had been retrieved, and no one remained in the hospital as of late Friday afternoon.