More than a million customers remain without power following Hurricane Helene’s deadly assault on the Eastern U.S.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Thursday as a powerful category 4 storm. Forecasters warned of “a catastrophic and deadly storm surge.” It was the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region, the Weather Channel reported.
South Carolina was the worst-affected state, with 755,313 outages recorded early Monday, according to PowerOutage.us, a service that tracks disruptions. In Greenville County alone, more than 200,000 were registered.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster previously said on X that work was underway to clear roads and restore power, but he added that this would “take some time, many days in some places.”
Also heavily affected were Georgia with 580,771 outages, North Carolina with 457,941, Florida with 133,492 and Virginia with 100,584.
There were a further 31,975 in Ohio, 25,912 in West Virginia, 22,434 in Kentucky and 11,886 in Tennessee.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned earlier that power outages could be long-lasting and recommended anyone using generators to place them at least 20 feet away from doors, windows and garages to avoid deadly carbon-monoxide poisoning.
Helene turned into a tropical storm on Tuesday, after becoming the season’s most powerful hurricane by the time it had reached land.
An update from the NHC late Friday warned of “record-breaking” flooding across the southern Appalachians, but said conditions would begin to improve Friday night and on Saturday “following the catastrophic flooding over the past two days.“
Flood warnings from the National Weather Service (NWS) remained in place for many counties in affected states early Monday.
CBS News reported that Helene has left at least 116 people dead, with 30 fatalities in Buncombe County, North Carolina, one of the worst affected states.
“This is the most significant natural disaster that any one of us has ever seen in Western North Carolina,” Ryan Cole, Buncombe County’s assistant emergency services director, told local news station ABC11.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper described the fallout from Helene as “an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response.”
Almost 4 million customers were without power early Saturday.
Again, South Carolina was the worst-affected state, with 1,089,535 outages recorded.
Some 787,428 outages were recorded in Georgia, 728,427 in North Carolina, 527,945 in Florida, 224,841 in Ohio and 141,407 in Kentucky. There were an additional 72,962 in Indiana, 70,991 in West Virginia and 62,091 in Tennessee, for a combined total of 3,705,627.
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