September 27, 2024 news on Tropical Depression Helene

Our live coverage of Tropical Depression Helene has ended. Follow the latest news or read through the posts below.

About 64 people were rescued from the roof of a hospital in rural Tennessee Friday as water flooded the area, making it almost inescapable without the help of rescue helicopters.

“They got us out at the precise moment,” Erwin Police Chief Regan Tilson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Friday night.

Police were already at the scene trying to evacuate people from Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, but within 15 to 20 minutes, the water rose to a level that made the roof the only means of escape, Tilson said.

Four helicopters from two state agencies landed on the rooftop to evacuate the remaining patients and hospital staff, which Tilson said was crucial, as he was anxious about how much time they had left.

“I’m not going to lie, it was very - not only chaotic but concerning that we weren’t be able to get anybody, much less the patients out,” he said. “And again, if not for those helicopters, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”

Alan Levine, Chairman and CEO of Ballad Health, was coordinating with the state’s emergency management team to getting people out of the hospital but kept facing issue after issue.

“Each of the steps of the plan, we found were failing,” Levine said. “We couldn’t get the boats in and out safely.”

Despite the hospital only being built five years ago, Levine was concerned about the building not being able to withstand the rushing water.

“There was a lot of praying but really today a lot of people worked together,” he said.

Read more about the rescue here.

A US Coast Guard swimmer, Ted Hudson, rescued a man and his dog from their house boat in the ocean off of Sanibel Island, Florida, during the hurricane as dangerous waves threatened their lives.

In footage of the dramatic rescue captured by Hudson’s helmet camera, he can be seen being hoisted down from a helicopter battling to stay still amid 60 mph winds, until he enters the water. He then swims through terrifying waves to reach the stranded man and his dog. They enter the water and swim toward Hudson, who assists them as they are airlifted into the helicopter.

The dog was nervous to enter the water at first, Hudson said, but eventually jumped in and swam toward him.

The video shows that after they were safely rescued, the man gave Hudson a high five and shook his hand.

“He just said thank you for saving his life,” Hudson said.

“It feels pretty good, it’s what I joined to do,” Hudson said, describing how it felt to save someone’s life. “I say it’s a privilege.”

Watch more:

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Dramatic video shows helmet cam of Coast Guard swimmer rescue efforts

02:35 - Source: CNN

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to media at the Douglas Port of Entry at the US-Mexico border in Douglas, Arizona, on Friday.

The Biden administration has mobilized more than 1,500 federal personnel to support communities affected by Hurricane Helene, Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters while speaking at the southern border in Douglas, Arizona.

Harris said she and President Biden will “continue to monitor the situation closely.” She said the administration is preparing food, water and energy generators for deployment to communities and is working to restore power for “millions of people who are currently experiencing outages.”

The vice president stressed the storm continues to be “dangerous and deadly,” as the risk of flooding still remains high.

Hurricane Helene is causing more disruption to travel and delivery services, beyond airline cancellations and delays.

Several Amtrak trains arriving or departing Florida and Georgia have been canceled, the company said. It includes trains between Washington, DC, and Savannah, Georgia, and between New York City and Jacksonville, Florida.

UPS announced it has suspended service to Florida, North Carolina and Georgia because of the storm.

FedEx also suspended or limited its service in five states, it said on its website. The company said it has activated it “contingency plans” to deliver in areas it can reach safely.

After Hurricane Helene, a number of national and state parks in the Southeast are telling hikers and campers to rethink their weekend plans.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is asking visitors to reschedule their trips, according to a Facebook post. The Smokies was the third most visited park last year, with more than 13 million visitors, according to National Park Service data.

Though the rain has slowed down Friday night, there are still a lot of road closures, including Cades Cove Loop and part of Newfound Gap Road — both popular routes. The Smokies received up to 9 inches of rain and historic flooding in some places, according to the park

In North Carolina, at least 14 state parks are completely closed due to Helene, the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation said.

A large part of the Blue Ridge Parkway is still closed, it said in a post, including now in parts of Virginia. It announced yesterday the entirety of the parkway in North Carolina was closed. But, the parkway urged people to “continue to stay off the Parkway (all uses) until it reopens.”

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a popular scenic route spanning more than 400 miles along the Appalachian Mountains. It passes through several states in addition to North Carolina, including Virginia and Tennessee.

Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky posted a photo on its Facebook page of workers clearing downed trees that fell across the road.

Workers attempt to restore power lines after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Keaton Beach, Florida, on September 27.

The remnants of Helene continued to disrupt electricity for several states across the eastern US on Friday evening, with approximately 4,527,072 customers without power, according to PowerOutage.us.

Winds continue to gust 30 to 50 mph over the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions Friday evening. More than 35 million people are under wind alerts heading into Saturday as the remnants of Helene continue to bring rain and gusty winds.

Here are the latest numbers from the states affected:

Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Florida, on September 26.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he thinks Hurricane Helene inflicted more damage than Hurricane Idalia in 2023, which at the time was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region in more than 125 years.

“We came from Perry and helicoptered over here, so we went along the coast … I can tell you that is way worse than Idalia.” DeSantis said. “You look at Keaton Beach, I mean I think almost every home was destroyed, or the vast majority, and some totally obliterated. It’s because they had such a massive surge that went in there.”

Officials think the storm surge might have been as high as 20 feet, he said.

Hurricane Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, on Thursday night as a Category 4 with 140 mph sustained winds and higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained wind speeds of 125 mph.

There have now been at least 45 deaths in five states from Hurricane Helene.

Here’s what we know:

At least 19 people have died in South Carolina related to storms attributed to Hurricane Helene, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.

The coroner’s offices in each county provided details on each death, the SCDPS said:

• 2 deaths in Newberry County

• 2 deaths in Anderson County

• 2 deaths in Saluda County

• 4 deaths in Aiken County

• 5 deaths in Spartanburg County

• 4 deaths in Greenville County

Emergency personnel watch as floodwaters rise, in Asheville, North Carolina, on Friday, September 27.

A citywide curfew will be in effect for 12 hours in Asheville, North Carolina starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday, according to the city government.

“The curfew is to ensure the public’s safety and will be in effect until further notice,” the Asheville City Government said in a Facebook post.

A woman who lives in North Carolina said she is “traumatized” by Hurricane Helene, which brought heavy rain and flooding to the Southeast after making landfall Thursday night.

“I witnessed at least one person busting out of their window,” Avery Dull, 20, told CNN. Dull is in Hendersonville, which is about about 25 miles outside of Asheville.

“In my 20 years of living in North Carolina, I never knew anything like this could happen here. I would say myself and most of my neighbors were extremely unprepared for this,” Dull said.

She said since she’s on the second floor, her apartment is OK.

“Luckily we were on high ground but those people lost everything,” Dull said. “Half of my neighborhood is underwater and dozens of families are trapped inside of their homes. Cars have been completely submerged and totaled, and power is out across the county.”

An apartment at Peachtree Park Apartments flooded after hurricane Helene brought in heavy rains overnight in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 27.

Even after a hurricane’s immediate flooding threat goes away, residents could face a host of potential health problems from the water — and what it leaves behind.

Floodwater is more than just rain. It’s often contaminated with sewage, bacteria and chemicals. Sharp objects made of metal or glass can also hide in the murky water.

Here are some of the health dangers to be aware of:

Sickness from floodwater

Floodwater can carry disease. In the US, people who come into contact with contaminated floodwater or eat or drink something that has, could experience bouts of diarrhea and other stomach problems. Floodwater can contaminate drinking water, especially from private wells, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those wells need to be tested before using if they come into contact with floodwater.

For municipal water, state and local health departments will make recommendations about whether it needs to be boiled or treated before using.

Health-related cleanup challenges

Doctors often see more respiratory infections after floodwaters recede and people are allowed to return to their homes. Contamination from floodwaters and the mold that quickly grows in a warm environment like those in Florida or Georgia can exacerbate asthma or trigger allergies.

The CDC advises wearing rubber boots and gloves when cleaning up homes and avoiding direct contact with any item that has been in floodwater. Experts also recommend wearing a mask or respirator.

Risks from standing water

Floods typically flush out mosquitoes and interrupt their breeding cycle, but when the water recedes, there is an increased risk of infection with a mosquito-borne illness like West Nile or, as one 2019 study showed, Zika.

The CDC suggests people who are working or living near standing water take extra care to use bug spray with DEET or picaridin. Wear long sleeves, pants and socks outdoors, even if it is warm, to prevent mosquito bites.

Standing water can also be electrically charged due to fallen power lines that are submerged or those that are underground but still live. With this comes a risk of electrocution.

Click here to see the full list of health-related flood dangers and tips to stay safe.

At least 28 storm-related deaths have been reported across five states, including Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia.

Two firefighters died in Saluda County, South Carolina, located about 43 miles west of Columbia, Gov. Henry McMaster said at a news conference Friday. Four others died in Anderson and Newberry, he said.

One person died in Craig County, Virginia, in a storm-related tree fall and building collapse, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday.

Officials are reporting eight deaths in Florida, 11 in Georgia and two in North Carolina.

Power in Taylor County and the surrounding counties of the Big Bend area of Florida is “all basically out,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a briefing Friday.

The state will continue to assist in any help needed, he said.

One person has died in Craig County, Virginia, from a storm-related tree fall and building collapse, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday.

“We lift up the family of this victim in our prayers,” the governor said at a news conference. Craig County is located just northwest of Roanoke.

A vast portion of the state is still under tornado watch, extending from central Virginia to the eastern border, the governor said. Swiftwater rescue teams are being deployed in Washington County, which is experiencing significant flooding, he added.

Youngkin urged residents to adhere to evacuation orders, saying: “Your life is too important.”

The Laurel Fork Road bridge is destroyed by floodwaters in the Upper Laurel Fork creek in Vilas, North Carolina, on September 27.

Helene is now a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 35 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

This change means that Helene no longer has an organized center of circulation and is losing its hurricane-like features.

But this change in designation doesn’t alter much of Helene’s overall threat going forward. Helene will continue to unleash heavy, flooding rainfall and gusty winds over hundreds of miles of the East tonight.

Approximately 1.1 million people are under at least 14 different flash flood emergencies, the highest level of flash flood warning issued by the National Weather Service that is reserved for catastrophic flooding that presents a severe threat to human life.

These flood warnings are located in the Southern Appalachians of Western North Carolina and adjacent parts of Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia.

The flooding is the result of multiple days of extreme rainfall resulting from a combination of a slow-moving cold front and the passage of Hurricane Helene, which has brought widespread and record flooding to the region.

While the rain has largely ended over the area, rivers will continue to rise in some locations as the rainfall continues to flow into the rivers and streams.

A man walks by a flooded area near the Swannanoa River in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 27.

Two Asheville natives described “complete pandemonium” in their city after Hurricane Helene brought several feet of floodwater and pushed large debris into streets overnight.

Maxwell Kline and Samuel Hayes said they went downtown to see the damage Friday morning and described the River Arts District neighborhood as being inundated with oil-contaminated floodwaters, they told CNN’s Isabel Rosales. Several bourbon distilleries in the area are underwater, they said.

Hayes said he woke up with several calls from his employees telling him about fallen trees on their roofs, water pouring into their homes and mudslides. “Complete pandemonium around the city,” he added. “It’s going to take us a long time to clean this up. It’s really going to hurt our businesses as well.”

Kline and Hayes said they haven’t had power, internet or cell phone service for hours. “All the gas pumps are down. Can’t get anything right now – no food you can buy, no gas, nothing,” Kline said.

Asheville is a small, tightly knit community that will band together and rebuild their city, Kline added.

“There’s huge trash floating down the road. I mean, whisky barrels, oil barrels everywhere. Our groundwater is going to be very contaminated, I’m imagining. If you look at the water, you can see oil in it,” Hayes said.

The majority of the people stranded on a Tennessee hospital roof on Friday have been rescued, the alderman of the town said.

Michael Baker, alderman of Erwin, Tennessee, where the hospital is located, told CNN that there are just “a handful” of people left on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital. Erwin is just over 40 miles north of Asheville, North Carolina.

The 54 people, including patients, were stranded after rapidly rising waters from Hurricane Helene made evacuation impossible Friday morning, Ballad Health said in an earlier statement.

“We’ve had a constant stream of helicopters picking them up and dropping them off into the city at safe places,” Baker said.

He added that he thinks most of those left on the roof are first responders.

“This time yesterday, you wouldn’t have been able to see straight to the hospital like we are now. There would have been trees and structures, but all of that is underwater, downstream now,” Baker said.

Debris is left inside a flooded store after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Cedar Key, Florida, on September 27.

The devastation in Cedar Key is so widespread it is not safe enough to allow residents or volunteers back into the small community off the Florida coast, city officials said.

“We’re concerned about water quality and all this debris. It’s just a multi, multifaceted mess,” said Cedar Key Mayor Sue Colson.

Many historical buildings and new homes have been destroyed, roads are blocked by downed wires and “extremely dangerous” debris, Colson said.

The town doesn’t have any sewage water or power, “so there’s really not a whole lot to be able to sustain people being here,” the mayor added.

“We want everybody to hold on so we can get them in,” Colson said.

Cedar Key is located on an island, about three miles out into the Gulf of Mexico, with only one road to access it. It’s located about 50 miles southwest of Gainesville, Florida.

Helene’s rain has largely come to an end in some of the hardest-hit areas of the Southeast, but it’s still dumping plenty of rain elsewhere.

Rain feeding off Helene’s robust moisture spread into parts of the Midwest and Northeast this afternoon in addition to pouring down over the Tennessee and Mississippi valleys.

Steady rain is falling from New Jersey, through northern Ohio and into Indiana while storms capable of producing tornadoes continue to pound the mid-Atlantic coast.

People work on power lines after Hurricane Helene passed offshore in Crystal River, Florida, on September 27.

Over 4.6 million customers in the path of Helene are without power Friday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US, after the storm tracked from Florida north into Tennessee and Kentucky.

Here are the top outages by state as of 3:00 p.m. ET:

Floodwaters are seen in Erwin, Tennessee, on September 27.

More than 50 people are stranded on the roof of a Tennessee hospital on Friday after rising floodwaters from Hurricane Helene complicated evacuation efforts.

Ballad Health said it was notified Unicoi County Hospital, located in Erwin, Tennessee, needed to be evacuated at around 9:30 a.m. local time Friday. But because of flooding and high winds, ambulances and helicopters could not reach the building safely. Erwin is just over 40 miles north of Asheville.

A total of 54 people were moved to the roof, and seven others are in rescue boats, Ballad Health said in a statement. The hospital system said there were 11 patients included.

The hospital has since been “engulfed by extremely dangerous and rapidly moving water,” the statement said. Because of how quickly the water was rising around and inside the hospital, rescue boats were also not able to get people out safely.

Ballad Health said the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard are working on “a dangerous rescue operation.” Michael Baker, a town alderman, said several helicopters are currently attempting to get hospital patients and staff off the roof.

“There’s a helicopter on top of the hospital, and we have another one, hovering nearby to start to carousel getting everybody off, but this is a team effort,” Baker told CNN.

This post has been updated with additional details.

Multiple Southern states have seen heavy rainfall and devastating flooding since Helene inched closer to the US on Thursday.

The director of Florida’s division of emergency management and Governor Ron DeSantis took the time Friday to praise the National Hurricane Center for its forecast of Hurricane Helene, which was predicted to be a major storm, impacting Florida’s Big Bend region, prior to the storm’s formation.

“They did an excellent job on getting this forecast. That has never been done in the history of the National Weather Service,” Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said. “They [National Hurricane Center] were very bold. They made a move. They said it’s going to be a major. When all the models were kind of varying back and forth between one and four, they went ahead and made a decision - I applaud that decision.”

“That’s something that’s not easy (…) there had to be a lot of judgment calls on that, in terms of how they interpreted the data,” DeSantis said, noting that the forecast helped “provide people with an ability to plan.”

Helene drenched much of Georgia shortly after the entire region was soaked by torrential rain Wednesday. Over the course of 48 hours, parts of the Atlanta metro recorded double digit rainfall totals which quickly triggered life-threatening flooding.

The overwhelming rainfall prompted a rare flash flood emergency for Atlanta. Scenarios similar to the one below played out all over the area.

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Water rescues unfold in flooded Atlanta neighborhood

00:50 - Source: CNN

National guardsmen and others participate in missions to rescue people stranded in a flooded neighborhood in Steinhatchee, Florida, on Friday.

Thousands of National Guardsman are conducting rescue efforts in Florida for Tropical Storm Helene, according to the Defense Department on Friday.

“Florida has nearly 3,900 guardsmen, 450 tactical vehicles, 13 rotary wing assets and six boats conducting emergency response missions in 21 counties around the state,” said Sabrina Singh, Pentagon deputy press secretary, at a briefing.

Singh said North Carolina has activated 358 guardsmen, while “Georgia has more than 300 guardsmen on orders, and Alabama has 43 guardsmen on orders and standing by.”

Singh said US Northern Command has “deployed a small team to Florida to be prepared to respond quickly to FEMA requests for assistance,” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved requests from the Florida and Georgia National Guards for a “dual-status commander in each state.”

“A dual-status commander is a National Guard, regular Army or regular Air Force officer who is jointly managed by the commander of USNORTHCOM and the chief of the National Guard Bureau and is allowed by law to serve in federal and state statuses simultaneously,” Singh explained.

In Keaton Beach, Florida, a small, tight-knit community is picking up the pieces of their lives left behind by the ravages of Hurricane Helene.

The town’s Beach Bums gas station has collapsed. They were three days away from celebrating the five-year anniversary since Beach Bums’ opening, said owner Jared Hunt, who spent the morning helping residents look for personal belongings, salvaging what’s left.

“Man, I just lost my house. I have nowhere else to go,” Eric Church, a Keaton Beach resident, told CNN as he stood with his wife in front of the wreckage of what used to be their home. “My house is laying here in a pile. It was sitting right there. There are just pillars left in the ground. I got a wife and two dogs with me. What am I supposed to do?”

Church’s wife, Erin Peelar, said the couple had just purchased the home and expected some water from the hurricane, not for the house “to disappear.”

“The house has been here for 75 years and that’s the whole reason we bought it six months ago, having faith it would be here for another 75,” Peelar said.

“I’m just a lucky person at the end of the day. Lucky we didn’t stay because nobody would’ve made it through this. There were six, seven, eight homes in front of us – they’re all gone.”

Thomas Chaves, left, and Vinny Almeida walk through floodwaters from Hurricane Helene in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday.

The world is getting hotter and hurricanes are getting stronger, according to climate scientists.

Hurricane Helene hit the Florida as a Category 4 storm on Thursday night, destroying homes, knocking out power and bringing deadly flash flooding.

Stronger storms means stronger winds, which leads to more life-threatening storm surge and catastrophic flooding. After it makes landfall, the storm is still dangerous, thanks to that increased amount of moisture that allows it to continue to dump rain, Mann said.

Reversing this trend of stronger, more extreme weather is “going to be tough,” Mann said, because it all has to do with how much humans have warmed the Earth.

“That warmth is sort of baked in for the near future, we’re not going to cool the planet down in the absence of substantial new technology to suck (planet warming) carbon out of the atmosphere,” he said.

But, Mann said there are things we can do to prevent it from getting worse, including stopping carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy “as rapidly as possible.”

Helene’s winds are deteriorating as it tracks deeper inland over the eastern US, and the system is now a tropical depression with winds of 35 mph, down 10 mph from a few hours ago, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The loss in strength isn’t translating to fewer impacts though as the system continues to produce historic rainfall and catastrophic flooding.

A road is flooded in western North Carolina on Friday, as seen in this photo posted to X by NCDOT.

“All roads in Western NC should be considered closed,” a post on X from the North Carolina Department of Transportation warned on Friday.

Tropical Storm Helene has left a trail of destruction across North Carolina, with 290 roads currently closed throughout the state. Gov. Roy Cooper said the state department of transportation is shutting down even more roadways as severe flooding, landslides and washed-out roads pose serious threats to public safety.

“The DOT is advising North Carolinians in western North Carolina, particularly, to seek higher ground and shelter in place,” North Carolina Emergency Management Director Will Ray said at news conference Friday morning.

Aerial footage shows the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Cedar Key and Steinhatchee, Florida.

Some houses in Cedar Key appear to be destroyed, with debris littering the streets. The overhead drone view shows how Helene flattened some buildings in the area.

In Steinhatchee, the footage shows houses moved by the power of Helene.

See the video:

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Aerial footage shows extensive Helene damage in Cedar Key and Steinhatchee, Florida

00:55 - Source: CNN

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“The whole side of the mountain started sliding," couple escapes landslide triggered by Helene

- Source: CNN

Shattered glass, rocks and mud covered Kelly and Alan Keffer’s car after a landslide triggered by Helene came crashing down onto Interstate 40 as they were driving through Black Mountain, North Carolina.

“My husband happened to see something from the corner of his eye and then we started to hear things pounding on top of the car, so he stepped on the gas,” Kelly Keffer said.

“The whole side of the mountain started sliding,” Alan Keffer said. “It was on the other side of the interstate, so I thought we were going to be able to speed up and get out of there so I hit the gas, but it slid faster than I thought.

The entire ordeal lasted less than a minute, they said.

“When I looked around, I realized that the glass for the back window was completely shattered and there was mud everywhere,” Kelly said.

Two people died — and four more were injured — in Newberry County, South Carolina, as a result of Hurricane Helene, the county sheriff told CNN Friday afternoon.

There are now 25 storm-related deaths confirmed in four states.

Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster did not immediately provide additional details about the circumstances of the deaths and injuries.

Newberry County is located about 40 miles northwest of the state capital, Columbia.

Flood waters inundate the main street of Tarpon Springs, Florida, after Hurricane Helene passed offshore on Friday.

Keith Turi, acting director of response and recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, warned residents of the dangers remaining after Helene.

“There’s a range of reasons why people think that as the storm passes, the hazards will decrease. It’s not necessarily true,” Turi told CNN.

“There are a lot of dangers in those floodwaters, things you can see and sometimes things you can’t see that are going under the surface, and so really you need to stay out of those floodwaters. Make sure you get to a safe place,” he added.

The FEMA official said downed power lines and even operating a generator can pose risks.

In this photo posted to X by the NCDOT, a road in western North Carolina is flooded on Friday.

Western parts of North Carolina are seeing heavy rains Friday coupled with tropical storm-force winds bordering on hurricane-strength levels, Gov. Roy Cooper said.

The state is seeing life-threatening flash flooding, numerous landslides and power outages. There are at least 290 road closures throughout the state and more than 800,000 customers without power, according to PowerOutage.us as of Friday midday.

Cooper noted there have been two storm-related deaths and said his office is aware of more than 100 swift water rescues since the beginning of the storm. He warned there may likely be more in the coming days.

At least 115 structures in the south Georgia city of Valdosta were heavily damaged by Helene, Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday, and rescues are underway.

“We know there are multiple people trapped inside,” he said.

A stranded car sits in flood waters as Tropical Storm Helene strikes, in Boone, North Carolina, on Friday.

Updated preliminary rainfall totals from the Weather Prediction Center show exactly why western North Carolina is dealing with life-threatening flooding.

From Wednesday morning to Friday morning, more than two feet of rain fell in the state’s mountainous region. One observation on Busick totaled 29.58 inches in just 48 hours. That’s about six times the normal amount of rainfall for all of September in the area.

More than a foot of rain has fallen in at least three other states: Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

A resident walks into fast-flowing water to help a stranded driver Friday near Boone, North Carolina.

At least 23 Helene-related deaths have been reported across four states, authorities have said. They include:

8 people in Florida
-A fallen tree killed someone in a home in the Big Bend’s Dixie County.
-A fallen sign hit a car being driven on Interstate 4 near Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood.
-Drowning accounted for at least two of these five deaths in Pinellas County near Tampa: two in Treasure Island, two in Indian Rocks Beach and one in Dunedin.
-Water had gotten into the home of a woman in her late 70s found dead in Tampa.

11 people in Georgia

-A tornado killed two in Alamo, southeast of Macon.
-Nine others have died in the storm.

2 people in South Carolina

-Fallen trees killed residents in their homes in Anderson County in northwest part of the state.

2 people in North Carolina

-A car wreck on a storm-slick road left a 4-year-old girl dead in Claremont, north of Charlotte.
-A fallen tree left someone dead at home in Charlotte.

Correction: A previous version of this post misstated the capital of North Carolina.

In this screengrab taken from a United States Coast Guard body cam, a man and his dog are seen being rescued after his sailboat became disabled and started taking on water off Sanibel Island, Florida, on Thursday, September 26.

Overnight, the Red Cross assisted at least 9,400 evacuees across 143 shelters from Florida through North Carolina, the organization’s Vice President of Disaster Programs Jennifer Pipa said in a Friday news conference with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Officials from the National Weather Service, US Coast Guard, the Department of Energy, Urban Search and Rescue, US Army Corps of Engineers, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response also provided updates on Helene’s impacts, sharing their efforts while urging people to stay safe.

The United States Coast Guard said it saved and assisted nine people, but more calls are ongoing.

There are about 4.4 million power outages due to Helene’s wrath, mostly in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, according to Ken Buell, the deputy director for response and restoration at the US Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response said. Those numbers are expected to fluctuate throughout the next few days, he added.

Another person in Anderson, South Carolina, died Friday morning in a second fatality attributed to severe weather conditions from Tropical Storm Helene in the state.

The victim died after a tree fell on a home, according to the Anderson County Coroner’s office.

Spokesperson Alyssa Whitfield said the coroner’s office was en route to the second death involving a tree falling onto a residence. Details about the victim were not immediately available.

This is the second reported storm fatality in the state of South Carolina. At least 23 Helene-related deaths have been reported across four states.

The French Broad River in Asheville reached over 16 feet by 11 am on Friday.

Within hours, floodwaters have gone up several feet in Asheville, North Carolina, inundating cars and pushing large debris through the city, as seen by CNN’s Isabel Rosales.

“With this particular type of flooding, what makes it so tricky is that even when the rain has gone away, as we’re seeing right now, it has really eased up, this flooding is just going to get worse and worse, because all of this water has to go somewhere,” Rosales said.

About 10 miles from the city center, the Swannanoa River has surged to major flood stage. The river, which is normally about 2 to 4 feet deep, surpassed 20 feet on Friday and reached a new record today.

“We could see that the storm drainage system was taken ahead, clearly, overwhelmed by all of this water,” Rosales said, adding the situation will continue to get worse.

Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday night in Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 storm. The storm continued to batter the Southeast, bringing more than a foot of rain, which has caused life-threatening flooding.

Here are some photos of the storm and its aftermath.

People use buckets to remove water from a home near Peachtree Creek in Atlanta on Friday, September 27, after Hurricane Helene brought heavy rain overnight.

Candace Redwine surveys the damage after about 3 feet of water inundated her Spiceman Kitchen store in Tarpon Springs, Florida, on Friday.

People lead their pets to safety after they were rescued from severe flooding in Boone, North Carolina, on Friday.

Flood water washes over Guy Ford Road bridge on the Watauga River in Sugar Grove, North Carolina, on Thursday, September 26.

See more photos here.

Hurricane Helene flooded parts of Atlanta with torrential rain Friday morning.

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Flooding in neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia from Hurricane Helene

00:27 - Source: CNN

Helene isn’t the only storm the Atlantic basin has fueled in recent days.

Hurricane Isaac is chugging along in the north Atlantic, and Tropical Storm Joyce formed this morning in the tropical Atlantic. Neither Isaac nor Joyce is expected to directly impact land.

Today marks the first time all season that three named systems are active simultaneously in the basin. The last time this happened was August 31, 2023, when Franklin, Idalia and Jose were active, according to hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach.

Initial forecasts for this year’s hurricane season were aggressive as all metrics pointed to a busy year. But a period of calm during what’s typically the busiest part of the season sent experts looking for answers.

Three named storms are active in the Atlantic basin late Friday morning.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the conditions along Gulf Boulevard, a 15-mile-long road running the length of the county’s barrier islands, are like “a war zone” following the impacts of Hurricane Helene.

“I can’t think of a time, ever, that Pinellas County has experienced the surge that we experienced last night, and into the early morning hours. The areas of Gulf Boulevard have never, ever looked like this before,” the sheriff said, describing the roadway as “impassible” and “dangerous.”

While a lot of water has dissipated, the sheriff said around 12 to 15 areas in the county remain barricaded because water is still on the roadway.

Barrier island roads in the county are impassable, with mounds of sand piled up similar to “snowbanks,” Gualtieri said.

“You cannot see the ground. (…) You really need a big plow to get it off the roadway,” he said.
“Some of that sand out there is probably as much as four and five feet high.”

President Joe Biden is urging those affected by Tropical Storm Helene to “take every precaution to keep themselves and their families safe” in the wake of the storm, he said in a post on social media.

“Last night, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm. I’ve approved emergency requests in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and deployed 1,500 response personnel – my Administration stands ready to provide more support as needed,” Biden wrote on social media.

The president was briefed Friday morning on the initial impacts of Helene, the White House said in a statement.

Vice President Kamala Harris was also briefed Friday, a White House official said.

Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will travel to Florida to “survey the damage and meet with state and local officials,” the White House added.

Multiple rounds of overwhelming, torrential rainfall are pushing the Lake Lure Dam – located about 20 miles southwest of Asheville – to its literal breaking point.

“RESIDENTS BELOW THE LAKE LURE DAM NEED TO EVACUATE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY!! DAM FAILURE IMMINIENT!! (sic) EVACUATE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY!!” the Rutherford County Department of Emergency Management warned Friday.

The county reported that “catastrophic flows” along the Broad River into Lake Lure are “overtopping” Lake Lure Dam, pushing the dam into “imminent failure,” according to the National Weather Service.

A flash flood emergency is in effect for the area where close to a foot of rain has fallen in the last 24 hours.

NOAA Hurricane Hunters shared video from last night’s evening flight through Helene as the storm was strengthening before landfall.

Members of the United States Geological Survey are measuring the velocity and depth of water in metro Atlanta creeks to understand the severity of the flooding due to Helene.

Using their Doppler boat, the USGS is building a flood stage map with the Army Corps of Engineers to see how the flooding is impacting the community.

The Doppler boat is deployed to measure the velocity and depth of the water.

Between 6 and 10 inches of torrential rain has already fallen in Atlanta, and more is coming.

A flash flood emergency has been issued for the Atlanta area — including Midtown, College Park, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Forest Park, Riverdale and Jonesboro — until 1 p.m. ET.

A flash flood emergency is the most severe flood alert the National Weather Service can use, and it indicates a life-threatening situation.

Pinellas County is reporting five storm-related fatalities Friday morning, two in Treasure Island, two in Indian Rocks Beach, and one in Dunedin, according to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

“Not everybody evacuated, and unfortunately, they called for help, and we couldn’t help a lot of the people who called as those conditions got very bad last night, and it was inaccessible,” Gualtieri said.

First responders continue going door-to-door Friday morning to locations where calls for help originated, the sheriff said, adding, “I have no idea whether that death toll will increase, but it’s possible.”

For at least two of the deaths, “it’s clear it’s a drowning,” Gualtieri said, while the others are still under investigation, but all are considered storm related fatalities.

“It’s hard, but we will continue to recover as a community, and we will do everything in our power to continue restoration efforts for our residents,” Pinellas County Emergency Management Director Cathie Perkins said, holding back tears.

Millions across the southeastern United States are reeling after Hurricane Helene roared ashore overnight. Helene made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 hurricane — the strongest on record to strike the area.

As one of the largest storms the Gulf of Mexico has seen in the last century, Helene’s effects are widespread, bringing catastrophic flooding, damaging winds, and life-threatening conditions even hundreds of miles inland.

Here’s how you can help those affected by Helene.

A large oak tree lies on a home in Anderson, South Carolina, on Friday.

Wind speeds are dropping in Tropical Storm Helene as it tracks through the southern Appalachians, according to the National Hurricane Center.

But it is still wreaking havoc in the Southeast, mid-Atlantic and Tennessee Valley with flooding rainfall. Rare flash flood emergencies are active in multiple states.

Helene now has sustained winds of 45 mph, down from 60 mph earlier this morning. Winds in the storm will continue to weaken and may become a tropical depression or a post-tropical cyclone later today.

Angelina Madut knew driving home from her overnight shift at a suburban Atlanta bakery was a risk.

The warnings about Helene’s potential to flood neighborhoods and topple trees had been in play for hours. But like anyone who couldn’t take the financial hit of missing a day of work because of the storm, Madut got in her car.

She had to get home from work.

At the same time early Friday, a news crew had set up in the city’s Buckhead neighborhood — not far from Peachtree Creek — to report on whatever damage Helene had in store.

As Madut navigated before dawn into the city — and onto that same street — she didn’t realize how much water had pooled in front of her on the road.

Soon, her car lost traction.

And then, it started to float.

She called her husband, Ernest.

“You need to, if you can, reverse the car,” he told her. “You need to just open the window and get on the roof of the car and see whether you can be seen by anybody.”

“In the meantime,” he said, “I need to call 911.”

Ernest Madut hung up and called the emergency number to report where someone — anyone — could find his stranded wife, he later told CNN.

Then, he called her back.

Angelina Madut by that time had noticed people in a vehicle nearby — the journalists, including former HLN meteorologist Bob Van Dillen.

“OK, can you roll down the window?” Ernest asked his wife.

But when she did, the water came in, her husband later recalled.

Angelina panicked.

“Wave at them!” he screamed.

Van Dillen spotted her.

And jumped into action.

The veteran newsman rushed into a flood as deep as his chest and pulled Madut from her white sedan — and onto his own back.

Then, with Madut’s hands clasped together around his chest, Van Dillen began trudging up Sagamore Drive, Madut leaning off his left side, video from Fox Weather shows. With each step, her soaked black and white shirt and jeans emerged at the surface.

“She was cold. I gave her my shirt,” Van Dillen told his colleagues, according to the video. “Her husband’s gonna pick her up, and the fire truck came. They’re good. Everyone’s good.”

After daybreak, Madut’s car still sat in the brown flood, only its roof and the top inches of its windows visible.

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Dramatic rescue in flooded Atlanta neighborhood

03:49 - Source: CNN

As far as she’s concerned, a shaken Madut told CNN, Van Dillen saved her life.

Later, after her husband arrived, Van Dillen advised him not to drive toward the overtopped creek, to go another way instead.

As for Madut, her hero offered this: “You can keep the shirt,” he said of the bright red top. “Keep it. It’s all yours.”

Heavy flooding and extensive damage show a clearer picture of the devastation from Helene in the Davis Islands neighborhood of Tampa Friday morning. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor surveyed the aftermath, as seen in this aerial footage.

Clean up efforts are underway in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, on Friday.

As of 6 a.m. ET on Friday, there were 1.24 million customers without power across the state, with over one million already restored since the beginning of the storm, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said during a briefing Friday morning.

There are 54 healthcare facilities on generator power across the state, including five hospitals, 26 assisted living facilities, and 17 nursing homes, according to DeSantis.

Several counties are severely impacted, with over 30% of customers without power, and some where the outage total is as high as 99%, such as Dixie, Jefferson, Nassau and Taylor counties.

“You’ll notice those 99% counties are generally the counties that were in the immediate path of the storm,” the governor said. “I think you’re going to see some progress on that throughout today.”

Florida airports that had suspended service before the storm are anticipated to resume operations at some point today, the governor said. Tampa International Airport has since announced that it is open to the public and there was no damage to its facilities.

Torrential rainfall deluged parts of the Southeast on Wednesday ahead of Helene’s arrival and made the hurricane’s robust rain all the more dangerous.

Below are estimates of rainfall totals from Wednesday morning to Friday morning that capture Helene’s current rain and Wednesday’s extreme event.

Radar-estimated precipitation totals from Wednesday morning into Friday morning.

Preliminary rainfall totals released last night by the Weather Prediction Center include 15.5 inches in Sumatra, Florida, and 13.74 inches in Busick, North Carolina.

New weather observation data this morning also captures totals of 12 to 14 inches in northeastern Georgia and 12 to 16 inches in far northwestern South Carolina from Wednesday to Friday.

Parts of the Atlanta area recorded double-digit totals.

Tampa International Airport “is now fully open and operational after suspending commercial and cargo flight operations Thursday due to Hurricane Helene.”

Operations staff “conducted damage assessments early Friday morning and determined TPA did not sustain any significant damage from the storm,” the airport said in a statement.

Helene continues to dump torrential rainfall and multiple life-threatening flash flood emergencies now stretch from eastern Tennessee to western North Carolina and Virginia.

“Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order,” the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Virginia, warned.

Ronda Bell looks at the damage after a tree fell on her home in Valdosta, Georgia, on Friday.

There are just over 700,000 customers without power in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene, the spokesperson for Georgia’s largest utility told CNN Friday morning.

Power was restored to about 100,000 customers overnight, according to Matthew Kent, spokesperson for Georgia Power.

Outages remain in the cities of Valdosta, Columbus and Savannah, but since the storm has moved through most of those areas, crews are able to begin safely working on restoration, Kent said.

Hurricane Helene was bound to be a major disaster.

The atmosphere, warmed by more than a century of fossil fuel pollution, is hotter now than it was in pre-industrial times. That means it can hold more moisture, which wrings out as torrential rain in storms like Helene, triggering deadly flooding not just in Florida but across the Southeast.

Helene also rapidly intensified twice before it reached Florida, because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is off-the-charts warm — much like the rest of the Atlantic. More than 90% of warming around the globe over the past 50 years has taken place in the oceans, and it’s making storms more likely to undergo these rapid intensification cycles.

Sea levels in Florida are as much as 8 inches higher than they were in 1950. The speed of that rise is increasing too. This translates to higher storm surge.

Across the board, Helene was a hurricane supercharged by climate change.

Sea surface temperatures were abnormally warm as Helene crossed from the Caribbean Sea to the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday into Wednesday, allowing the system to rapidly intensify. The darker the orange, the warmer the water is than normal.

“For decades now, scientists have been warning us that extreme weather events will be exacerbated by this blanket of carbon pollution we’ve been wrapping around our planet,” said Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “But as a human, it is shocking to see the devastation occurring in front of our eyes, affecting the people and places we know and love.”

Hurricane expert Jeff Masters tallied up some numbers last night that speak for themselves:

There have now been eight Category 4 or 5 hurricane landfalls on US soil in the past eight years.

That’s as many as the entire 57 years that came before it.

Broader search and rescue efforts are underway Friday morning in areas of Florida hit by significant storm surge, including many parts of the West Coast and the Big Bend region, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said. The governor said while crews are checking for any people possibly left behind, officials have not received any reports of that and rescue missions overnight were successful and “saved a lot of lives.”

“All the rescue operations that were done (…) whether it was local, state, or a combination … the folks that called [911] were found and were safe and were brought to safety,” DeSantis said.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission now has boat teams in Dixie and Taylor counties actively conducting search and rescue. “These are basically the ground zero of the storm,” the governor said.

An additional team of 72 staff members are en route to Taylor, Dixie, and Levy counties with shallow water boats. The fish and wildlife commission has a boat team of 15 going to Franklin and Wakulla counties to assess storm damage, and a 16-man Florida State Guard team is headed to Pinellas County to assist with search and rescue efforts there, the governor said.

A person in Anderson, South Carolina, died Friday morning in another fatality attributed to severe weather conditions from Tropical Storm Helene. The victim died after a tree fell on a home, according to the Anderson County coroner’s office.

Spokesperson Alyssa Whitfield said the coroner’s office was still responding the scene and did not immediately have more details about the victim or the circumstances of the death.

It is the first reported storm fatality in the state of South Carolina and the seventh overall from the storm. Storm-related deaths also have been confirmed in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.

During a briefing Friday morning, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reported a second storm-related fatality in the state.

A person was killed when a tree fell onto a home in Dixie County, in the Big Bend region of the state, he said.

DeSantis previously said another person died in Florida Thursday after a sign fell and hit a car driving on Interstate 4, near Ybor City in the Tampa area.

At least six people have died from the impact of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast.

North Carolina’s Swannanoa River has surged to major flood stage this morning near Asheville, where incredibly dangerous flash flooding is ongoing.

Water levels near the city’s Biltmore Village have reached nearly 18 feet – an increase of about 10 feet since Thursday evening. The river is normally only about 2 to 4 feet deep.

The river is forecast to rise to 21 feet and surpass its record flood stage today as rain continues to pound the area and area floodwaters attempt to drain into it.

Here’s a look at what the river has done so far (in blue) and the forecast (purple):

“Rapid rises are imminent along the Swannanoa River, resulting in major, catastrophic, and potentially historic flash flooding within the valley,” the National Weather Service warned.

Asheville and multiple other locales in western North Carolina are under rare flash flood emergencies this morning.

It’s not every day Atlanta residents see boats on their streets with authorities doing swift water rescues, the city’s mayor told CNN’s John Berman on Friday morning.

But that’s the reality Tropical Storm Helene has delivered to parts of Georgia’s capital city: inundating the ground, uprooting trees and downing power lines, including at the mayor’s own home, Andre Dickens said.

Crews are still responding to calls for help, Dickens said, adding no injuries or fatalities associated with the severe weather have been reported.

Helene has inundated parts of the Southeast with record rainfall, but the threat isn’t over yet.

The radar imagery above captures where Helene has dumped intense rainfall over the past 6 hours.

The yellow and orange values that track through Georgia and into western North Carolina indicate torrential rainfall. Much of that same area is under flood alerts of varying severity Friday morning.

Multiple flash flood emergencies – the most severe flood warning – are in place.

Helene’s heaviest rain will shift out of the Southeast this morning and expand over the Tennessee Valley and mid-Atlantic.

Emergency crews north of Tampa in Citrus County, Florida, have conducted more than 100 water rescues as storm surge from Hurricane Helene stands at around 10 feet, county Sheriff Mike Prendergast told CNN Friday morning.

First responders were still on 22 water rescue calls and also had rescued around 50 pets, Prendergast said, noting there had been no reports of deaths of serious injuries in Citrus County.

“This is all storm surge,” he said. “It’s a little bit more than what we saw during Hurricane Idalia back in 2023, about 13 months ago. In fact, I think we’re going to have about 10 feet or so of storm surge when the National Weather Service gets out and does their survey.”

The Sheriff’s Office is being assisted by Citrus County Fire Rescue, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, which is using an airboat, the sheriff said.

Heavy rainfall produced by Tropical Storm Helene is expected to result in both urban and river flooding, as well as landslides, causing catastrophic conditions across the Southeast.

The rainfall will continue falling over the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee, resulting in catastrophic and potentially life-threatening flash and urban flooding, along with significant and record river flooding. Numerous significant landslides are expected in steep terrain across the southern Appalachians. Several flash flood emergencies with water rescues are occurring in portions of North Carolina and Georgia, including Atlanta.

Helene is located about 80 miles east-northeast of Atlanta, moving to the north at 30 mph, according to the 8 a.m. ET National Hurricane Center update. Sustained winds are down to 60 mph, but hurricane-force wind gusts can still occur. Tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 275 miles mainly to the east of the center.

Tornadoes are also possible this morning over parts of eastern Georgia, and through this afternoon over the Carolinas and southern Virginia.

A Florida mother of three who has ridden out a half-dozen hurricanes in the Big Bend coastal town of Steinhatchee says Helene spawned the worst flooding she’s ever seen.

“I’ve got a boat sitting in the road in front of me right now and fish in our yard,” Jules Carl told CNN’s John Berman on Friday morning.

Carl – who was pregnant with her youngest child when record-breaking Hurricane Idalia hit the area a year ago – never had to worry too much about flooding at her home, she said.

But this storm came uncomfortably close.

“It was coming up our patio steps. It got very, very close to coming in,” Carl told CNN.

While damage reports are still coming in, Carl remains very concerned for how her community fared.

“This town is pretty well devastated,” she said.

Residents in parts of St. Petersburg, Florida, are being asked not to drain water, take showers, do laundry, or flush toilets, as one of the city’s sewer treatment plants has gone offline to protect it from “unprecedented storm surge,” due to Hurricane Helene.

The city warned that draining water will cause sewage to back up into homes or businesses. The Northeast Sewer Treatment Plant is the only facility the city currently anticipates being affected by storm surge.

Officials said it will take at least 48 hours to resume wastewater operations for the facility once inspections and repairs are completed.

Someone was killed Friday morning inside a home in Charlotte, North Carolina, as strong winds from Tropical Storm Helene pushed a tree onto it, the city’s fire department said.

“The minor children in the home were not physically harmed,” the Charlotte Fire Department said on Facebook.

Another adult trapped with the person who died was rescued, fire department said; their condition was not immediately released.

It is the fifth death reported from what is now Tropical Storm Helene.

There has been at least one storm-related death in Florida and two in Georgia, confirmed by the states’ governors. A 4-year-old died Thursday in Catawba County, North Carolina, in a head-on wreck on roads slick with rain from Helene’s outer bands.

CNN’s Dianne Gallagher contributed to this report.

A flash flood emergency has been issued for Atlanta — including Midtown, College Park, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Forest Park, Riverdale and Jonesboro — until 1 p.m. ET.

A flash flood emergency is the most severe flood alert the National Weather Service can use, and it indicates a life-threatening situation.

Between 6 and 10 inches of torrential rain has already fallen, and more is coming.

Emergency management has reported numerous road closures. Officials have reported dozens of swift-water rescues.

One to 2 more inches of rain is expected Friday and will contribute to swiftly rising stream levels and increasing risk of life-threatening flooding.

READ MORE: Flash flooding and what causes it

More than 3.2 million customers across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and southern Virginia were without power Friday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. This comes as rain and strong wind from Tropical Storm Helene continues to pound the Southeast.

Below is a breakdown of power outages by state as of 7 a.m. ET:

“Anybody in your house? Fire Department!” rescuers in a boat shouted Thursday as they passed a burning home in a flooded part of Pinellas County, Florida.

“Come on out! We’ve got a boat!”

Rescuers from the South Pasadena Fire Department and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office shined flashlights as they searched for stranded residents, as seen in video posted on Facebook by the city. Someone coughed as the boat went through smoke.

The city – south of Clearwater at Tampa Bay – noted, with the video:

A 4-year-old died and multiple others were injured Thursday in a traffic accident in the city of Claremont, North Carolina, during “heavy rain conditions,” according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

It marks the fourth confirmed death in adverse weather conditions caused by Helene.

The accident happened when a car crossed the center line of Boggs Road and ran head-on into a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction, said Sgt. Christopher Knox with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

The 4-year-old died and a 12-year-old traveling in the same vehicle was hospitalized with with life-threatening injuries, according to NCSHP. Two children in the other vehicle were also hospitalized: a 2-year-old with life-threatening injuries and a 4-year-old with less severe trauma.

The drivers of both vehicles — Lyndsey Nicole Gaddis, 32, and Tiffany Miner Sipe, 34 — have non-life-threatening injuries, Knox said.

“The initial investigation indicates impairment was not a contributing factor in the collision,” said Knox. The NCSHP says there will be a complete investigation into the cause of the accident.

The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department responded to multiple calls — the bulk of which were swift water rescues — Thursday night through early Friday morning, rescuing about 25 people, they told CNN.

Wind-related emergencies were minimal, however, due to the track of the storm.

During one of the more complex rescues, authorities helped rescue a family of two adults and an infant on top of a car who were trapped by unexpected swift currents, the AFRD said.

Homes in the low-lying coastal town of Steinhatchee in Florida’s Big Bend area have been washed away as storm surge batters the coastline.

The homes floated away in fast-moving waters as they were pounded early Friday morning by wind and rain, shaky video shot by storm chaser Aaron Rigsby shows.

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Homes float away in storm surge

00:31 - Source: CNN

The homes appeared to be empty, he told CNN.

“Several of these were mobile homes, and multiple homes behind these floated away and crashed into each other in the trees and a couple others when they all got lodged,” Rigsby said.

Several flash flood emergencies have been issued in western North Carolina due to heavy rain producing flooding across the state.

Areas including Asheville, Avery, east central Buncombe, Mitchell and Haywood counties are under flash flood emergencies.

Emergency management has reported “catastrophic flooding” across portions of Mitchell and Avery counties, according to the flash flood warning details. At least 7 to 10 inches of rain has already fallen across both counties, which has led to numerous road closures, damaged structures, and ongoing water rescues.

Emergency officials have also reported numerous road closures, ongoing water rescues, and flooded homes across Haywood County.

As record-breaking storm surge levels are seen along Florida’s coast, many are wondering what storm surge actually is.

According to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller, a storm surge is “a rise in water level caused by a strong storm’s wind pushing water onshore.” The wind “literally piles up the ocean water and pushes it on the land.”

Almost half of all deaths from tropical cyclones come from storm surge, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the storm surge reached as high as 25 to 28 feet above normal tide levels. In Hurricane Ian in 2022, it reached as high as 18 feet in Southwest Florida.

So far in Hurricane Helene, storm surge levels of up to 9.29 feet have been observed along the Florida coast.

Vehicles drive along a flooded street as Hurricane Helene churns offshore on September 26, in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

Six states are under states of emergency as Tropical Storm Helene batters the Southeast after slamming into Florida’s Big Bend.

The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane and although it has now weakened, torrential rains and ferocious winds have caused widespread damage to homes and infrastructure.

Storm watches and warnings are also in place for 60 million people in 12 states.

These states have declared emergencies:

Emergency managers in Taylor County, Florida, are not messing around.

The officials, who oversee low-lying towns including Steinhatchee and Perry, posted Thursday afternoon on Facebook, asking all residents who chose not to evacuate to grab a permanent marker and write their name and date of birth on their leg.

The unspoken message: You will not survive this.

Officials also asked friends and relatives of people who did not evacuate to reach out and share their information, so search and rescue teams know where to focus their efforts when the storm passes.

More than 2.2 million customers don’t have power across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, according to PowerOutage.US, as Tropical Storm Helene continues to impact the Southeast.

Here’s a breakdown of customers without power across the southeast as of 5 a.m. ET:

Helene continues to slowly weaken as it crosses over central Georgia and is now a tropical storm with winds of 70 mph, according to the 5 a.m. ET National Hurricane Center update.

Tropical storm Helene is located 40 miles east of Macon, Georgia and 100 miles southeast of Atlanta, Georgia moving north at 30 mph.

At least 14 areas in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina have recorded rainfall totals of at least 9 inches ahead of Helene’s landfall.

Sumatra, a community in Florida, saw at least 15.5” of rainfall between 8 a.m. Wednesday and 10 p.m. Thursday.

Anderson, a city in South Carolina with an approximate population of 29,980, saw 10.54” of rainfall in the same time period.

Areas that have received more than 9” of recorded rainfall between Wednesday morning and Thursday night are: