Tangled piles of nail-spiked lumber and displaced boats cluttered the streets as residents navigated through discolored floodwaters, desperately searching for loved ones. A house lay crushed beneath a fern-covered oak tree, uprooted by the violent winds. Rescue crews, utilizing fan boats, worked diligently to evacuate individuals found stranded in bathrobes or wrapped in blankets.
Authorities are scrambling to assess the extensive destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, which has left a trail of chaos across Florida, Georgia, and much of the southeastern U.S. The deadly storm has claimed at least 40 lives across four states and left millions without power.
Hurricane Helene, the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season that commenced on June 1, exhibited maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph). It made landfall late Thursday in a rural area where Florida’s Panhandle meets the peninsula, a region known for its fishing villages and vacation spots.
Floodwaters engulfed vehicles and buildings, while hurricane-force winds ripped roofs off homes, businesses, and churches. In St. Petersburg, Florida, residents Faith Cotto and her mother Nancy surveyed the remains of their brick home—destroyed not by flooding, but by fire amid the overwhelming water.
The Coast Guard successfully rescued a man and his dog from a disabled sailboat 25 miles off the southwestern coast of Florida, while firefighters carried children to safety across flooded streets in Crystal River, north of Tampa.
The storm’s impact extended even further. Atlanta’s streets were inundated with muddy water, hospitals in southern Georgia faced power outages, and officials warned of significant damage to the electrical grid. In Tennessee, rescue operations took place to save dozens of individuals stranded on a hospital roof, as authorities issued evacuation orders for downtown Newport, citing a “catastrophic failure” of a dam.
