The storm has taken more than 100 lives and caused widespread damage and power outages in flood-ravaged areas of Florida and North Carolina.
The U.S. National Guard said on Sunday that it has deployed more than 5,900 members from at least 10 states to assist with Hurricane Helene response efforts in several states across the Southeast.
The storm has caused widespread damage and power outages in flood-ravaged areas in Florida and North Carolina. More than 100 storm-related fatalities have been reported in six states, according to an Associated Press tally.
Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Florida’s Big Bend coast on Sept. 26.
Guardsmen were mobilized in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, with help from the Maryland, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Connecticut National Guard and others, the National Guard
said.
In Florida, more than 3,900 guard members and 18 Mississippi Guardsmen used 13 helicopters and Zodiac boats to rescue more than 150 people and cleared about 1,180 miles of roads.
“It’s pretty devastating to look at a lot of homes that have been wiped off the foundations and a lot of people that are probably going to be having to restart their lives pretty shortly,” Army Brig. Gen. Alex Harlamor of the Florida National Guard said in a
statement.
Fifty-four people were rescued from the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, and six residents were rescued in Virginia, according to the National Guard.
Ballad Health, which manages the Unicoi County Hospital, said on Sept. 27 that the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and National Guard members were engaged in “a dangerous rescue operation” as the hospital was engulfed by “extremely dangerous and rapidly moving water.”
In an
update on X, Ballad Health said it received a notice to evacuate the hospital due to “unusually high” water from the Nolichucky River. But flooding and high winds prevented ambulances and helicopters from getting to the hospital.
More than 400 guard members were deployed to support rescue missions and recovery operations in North Carolina, including clearing roads and transporting supplies to affected areas.
In North Carolina, Pamlico County Emergency Management
described the damage caused by flooding in Lake Lure and Chimney Rock as “unimaginable,” noting that 106 people have been evacuated.
Duke Energy
said on Sept. 29 that it had restored power to more than 1.1 million customers in South Carolina and North Carolina, although 904,000 other customers in some areas of each state remained without power.
Customers in upstate South Carolina and the North Carolina mountains will have their power restored by Friday, except for those in inaccessible areas, dependent on destroyed infrastructure, or unable to receive service, the company said.
Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy’s storm director for the Carolinas, said “stretches of damage” are still inaccessible due to mudslides, flooding, and blocked roads.
“Based on what we can see on the ground, from helicopter and by drone, there are lots of areas across the South Carolina Upstate and North Carolina mountains where we’re going to have to completely rebuild parts of our system, not just repair it,” Hollifield said in a
statement.
On Sept. 29, President Joe Biden approved major disaster declarations for North Carolina and Florida. The Federal Emergency Management Agency
stated that emergency declarations remain active in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Reuters contributed to this report.
