The Daily Populous Sunday September 29th, 2024 day edition
Authored by weather.com and submitted by Boldspaceweasle

At a Glance At least 58 people are dead across five states.

Entering the weekend, over 3 million homes and businesses remained without power.

Flash flooding and landslides in western North Carolina have isolated many people. Sign up for the Morning Brief email newsletter to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast this week, leaving a path of devastation. Dozens of people died as a result of catastrophic flooding, tornado damage, downed trees and other impacts of the destructive storm. Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm in Florida’s Big Bend, but prompted flash flood emergencies stretching into Appalachia. By Sunday morning, just under 3 million remain without power and some parts of western North Carolina are cut off by mudslides and flooding. And, across the Southeast, many communities are in recovery mode due to significant damage.

O​n Sunday morning, North Carolina's Governor announced that President Joe Biden approved his request for a Federal Major Disaster Declaration, providing immediate federal help for the western North Carolina region. This declaration is in addition to the federal emergency declaration that was in place before Tropical Storm Helene hit the state.

As Helene barged inland, western North Carolina faced devastating flooding with some areas submerged under feet of water. Other neighborhoods were isolated by standing water or mudslides. “Over 400 roads remain closed in North Carolina,” The North Carolina Department of Transportation said Saturday. “All roads in Western NC should be considered closed.”

One woman told the Associated Press that her family in the Asheville area has been unreachable. “I think that people are just completely stuck, wherever they are, with no cell service, no electricity,” she said.

Nearly 3 million homes and businesses remained without power across the Southeast on Sunday, according to PowerOutatges.us. Georgia Electric Membership Corp. reports that 100 high-transmission lines were lost in the state. Duke Energy, with many customers in North Carolina, say linemen are out working to reconnect service for homes and businesses. The Associated Press reports that, in South Carolina, crews had to cut their way through debris before they could even assess the damage in some places.

Advertisement The Big Bend region in Florida was one of the hardest-hit areas. Many residents in the region found their homes or roads completely washed away. Some coastal and island towns like Cedar Key endured storm surge flooding in excess of 15 feet above the ground.

Foundations and steps to buildings that were destroyed by the storm surge from Hurricane Helene are seen along the shoreline in the aftermath of the storm, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith)

Helene was a huge storm. Tropical-storm-force winds extended over 300 miles out from the center just before landfall. The storm’s landfall and path was tracked on satellite from space. You can watch it here.

Here’s a look at some of Helene’s eye-popping stats:

-Strongest hurricane landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region

-Third hurricane to make landfall there in 13 months.

-Estimated peak surge of 10.33 feet in Cedar Key appeared to break a record dating back to a hurricane in 1896.

-More than a foot of rain fell in parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Nearly 30 inches was recorded near Busick, North Carolina.

planetarial on September 28th, 2024 at 22:06 UTC »

What really didn’t help and probably made it much worse than it would have been is that the state had already been experiencing a bunch of rain even before Helene.

Thankfully I live far east enough that we only experienced a slightly above average storm, but if I lived another two hours closer it would have been much worse. I’ve seen some towns get wiped off the the map, its horrible.

Whole-Essay640 on September 28th, 2024 at 21:42 UTC »

Make sure your generators are ventilated properly, carbon monoxide is deadly.

fxkatt on September 28th, 2024 at 20:26 UTC »

“Over 400 roads remain closed in North Carolina,” ... “All roads in Western NC should be considered closed.” One woman told the Associated Press that her family in the Asheville area has been unreachable. “I think that people are just completely stuck, wherever they are, with no cell service, no electricity,” she said.

Mud slides and buried villages in this mountainous terrain. It's often this indirect stuff quite a distance from a hurricane's landing point that can cause the most human suffering.