CNN
—

Helene continues to unleash its fury in the Southeast after killing 49 people in multiple states, leveling communities and stranding many in floodwaters after the historic storm made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a monstrous hurricane on Thursday evening of category 4 with roaring winds of 230 km per hour. Here’s the latest:

• Deaths in 5 states: Storm-related deaths have been reported in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. There have been at least 19 deaths in South Carolina, including two firefighters killed in Saluda County and two residents killed by fallen trees in Anderson County, according to state officials. At least 15 people have been killed in Georgia, including two by a tornado in Alamo, according to a spokesman for Governor Brian Kemp. Florida officials reported eight deaths, including several people who drowned in Pinellas County, near Tampa. Six more deaths were reported in North Carolina, including a car crash on a stormy road that killed a four-year-old girl in Claremont and a fallen tree that killed someone in their Charlotte home. And in Craig County, Virginia, one person died in a storm-related tree fall and building collapse, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday.

• Storm rescue missions along the way: Nearly 4,000 National Guard members conducted rescue efforts in 21 counties across Florida, the Defense Department said Friday. North Carolina has activated 358 Guardsmen, while Georgia has more than 300 and Alabama has 43, said Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary. In addition, the Biden administration has mobilized more than 1,500 federal personnel to support communities affected by Helene, Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday.

• Severe flooding in North Carolina: Helene “is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. Western parts of the state were lashed by heavy rains and strong winds bordering on hurricane force, causing life-threatening flash floods, numerous landslides and power outages. According to the governor, more than a hundred people have been rescued from the high water. More than 2 feet of rain fell across the state’s mountainous region from Wednesday morning through Friday morning, with Busick recording a total of 29.58 inches in just 48 hours. In the hard-hit city of Asheville, a citywide curfew will apply until 7:30 a.m. Saturday, according to city officials. About 20 miles southwest of Asheville, overwhelming, heavy rainfall pushed the Lake Lure Dam into “imminent failure,” according to the National Weather Service.

• The threat is not over yet: The remnants of Helene will continue to bring rain and gusty winds to hundreds of miles to the east. More than a foot of rain fell in multiple states, causing at least 14 separate flash floods affecting about 1.1 million people in the southern Appalachians of western North Carolina and adjacent parts of Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia. In addition to the rain, winds continued to gust at 30 to 50 mph over the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions Friday evening, with more than 35 million people under a wind warning heading into Saturday.

• More than 3 million people are without power: Helene’s remains continued to knock out power for several eastern U.S. states Saturday morning, leaving approximately 3,429,137 customers in the dark in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

• Helene disrupts travel and delivery services: Helene has caused numerous disruptions to travel and delivery services. Several Amtrak trains arriving or departing from Florida and Georgia have been canceled, the company said. Delivery services were also affected, with UPS announcing it has suspended service to Florida, North Carolina and Georgia due to the storm. FedEx has also suspended or limited its service in five states. The water flooded numerous roads in the region, making them impassable. In North Carolina, 290 roads are closed across the state, and Gov. Roy Cooper said the state’s transportation department is closing even more roads as severe flooding, landslides and washed-out roads pose a serious threat to public safety.

• Dozens rescued from Tennessee hospital roof: More than 50 people stranded on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, were rescued after rapidly rising waters in Helene made evacuation impossible Friday morning, Ballad Health said.

• Helene is now a post-tropical cyclone: Helene — the strongest hurricane on record to land in the Big Bend region of Florida — is now a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 35 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. That means Helene no longer has an organized center of circulation and loses its hurricane-like characteristics. But this change in designation does not change the overall threat from Helene in the future, as Helene will continue to unleash heavy, flooding rains and gusty winds. Keith Turi, acting director of response and recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, warned residents of the dangers Helene still faces even after it’s over. “There are several reasons why people think that as the storm passes, the dangers will decrease. It’s not necessarily true,” Turi told CNN. “There’s a lot of dangers in those floods, things you can see and sometimes things you can’t see, that are underneath the surface, and so you really have to stay out of those floods. Make sure you get to a safe place.”

Communities in Florida and Georgia devastated

Helene has created a vast path of destruction across Florida, Georgia and the southeastern US, destroying trees and power lines and crippling hundreds of homes. As millions of people were left without essential services such as electricity and nowhere to shelter from the devastating storm, rescue crews set out to save people trapped in wreckage or underwater.

In Cedar Key, Florida, destruction is so widespread that it is not safe enough to allow residents or volunteers to return to the small community off the coast of Florida, city officials said Friday. The city has no sewage or electricity, “so there’s really not much to support the people here,” said Cedar Key Mayor Sue Colson.

Dozens of historic buildings and new homes have been decimated, while roads are blocked by downed wires and “extremely dangerous” debris, the mayor said. “It’s just a multifaceted mess,” Colson said.

Another small, close-knit community in Florida, Keaton Beach, is picking up the pieces of their lives left behind by Helene’s devastation.

“You look at Keaton Beach, I mean, I think almost every house was destroyed, or the vast majority, and some were completely obliterated. It’s because there was such a huge wave going in,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday, adding that the storm surge could have been as high as 20 feet.

The city’s Beach Bums gas station was three days away from celebrating the five-year anniversary of its opening when it collapsed, said owner Jared Hunt, who spent the morning helping residents search for personal belongings and rescue what was left.

A Keaton Beach resident stood with his wife in front of the rubble of what used to be their home, wondering where he would go next.

“Man, I just lost my house. I have nowhere else to go,” Eric Church told CNN. “My house is in a heap here. It was sitting there. There are only pillars left in the ground. I have a wife and two dogs with me. What should I do?”

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

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

But in the end, Peelar said the family was lucky.

“Luckily we didn’t stay, because no one would have survived this. There were six, seven, eight houses in front of us – they’re all gone,” she said.

In the ocean off Sanibel Island, Florida, U.S. Coast Guard swimmer Ted Hudson rescued a man and his dog from their houseboat during the hurricane when dangerous waves threatened their lives.

Footage of the dramatic rescue, captured by Hudson’s helmet camera, shows Hudson being lifted from a helicopter as he fights to remain 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 to Hudson, who helps them as they are flown into the helicopter.

“I think my adrenaline started going and I just went,” Hudson told CNN. “It was a dangerous situation to be in, and I tried to get out of there as quickly as possible.”

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

Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday evening near Perry, Florida, as a Category 4 with sustained winds of 140 mph (230 km/h) and higher gusts, the National Hurricane Center said. By comparison, Hurricane Idalia made landfall in August 2023 as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph.

In Georgia, several people were trapped after at least 115 structures in the southern Lowndes County city of Valdosta were heavily damaged by Helene, Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday.

“The damage to our community is significant and appears to be far worse than Hurricane Idalia,” Lowndes County Emergency Management said on its Facebook page.