Hurricane Helene clobbered the Southeast coast of the United States with heavy winds and pouring rain Thursday night, leaving at least 4 people dead.
The Category 4 storm — which weather experts say causes catastrophic damage — first hit northwestern Florida carrying with it 140-mile-per-hour gusts that impacted the area around the Aucilla River in the Big Bend region of the state’s Gulf Coast.
Shocking footage showed rising tides battering the Florida coastline, damaged houses engulfed in seawater and Marine deputies in rescue boats patrolling flooded neighborhoods.
Helene knocked out power in over a million homes and businesses throughout Florida before it rolled into other states such as Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and Virginia.
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The governors of each of those states declared emergencies, while more than 68,000 Georgians lost their electricity. In North and South Carolina, over 310,000 citizens were without power.
Also, in North Carolina, a 4-year-old was killed and several people injured in a traffic accident. Two people died in tornado-like winds in southern Georgia. And, in Florida, a motorist was killed after a sign fell on their car.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a warning, saying there would likely be additional lives lost as a result of the dangerous storm.
But some good news emerged early Friday … Helene was downgraded to a Category 1 storm, which is the weakest on the scale of hurricanes.
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, 25 people were rescued by the fire department, mostly during swift water boat operations.
