PERRY, Fla. — Hurricane Helene caused dozens of deaths and billions of dollars in damage across a wide swath of the southeastern United States, and more than 3 million customers spent the weekend without power, leaving some with a constant threat of flooding.

Helene came ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday, packing winds of 140 mph, then quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, smashing homes and sending streams and the river from its banks. weighing down dams.

Western North Carolina was essentially cut off due to landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. There were hundreds of rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in eastern Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were taken by helicopter from the roof of a hospital surrounded by water from a flooded river.

The storm, currently a post-tropical cyclone, is expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect for parts of the southern and central Appalachians, while high wind warnings also extended to parts of Tennessee and Ohio.

Among the at least 44 people who died in the storm were three firefighters, a woman and her one-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose home was struck by a falling tree. The deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, according to an Associated Press tally.

When the water in Kera O’Neil’s home in Hudson, Florida, was up to knee level, she knew it was time to run.

“There comes a point where you think, ‘If this water rises above the level of the stove, we won’t have much room to breathe,’” she said, recalling how she and her sister waded through chest-deep water with one cat in a plastic carrier , and the second one in a cardboard box.

Evacuations and record rainfall

In North Carolina, a lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing” overtopped a dam and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated, although there was no immediate concern that the lake would fail. People were also evacuated from Newport, Tennessee, a city of about 7,000 people, amid concerns about a dam being built near the site, though authorities later said there was no damage to the structure.

Tornadoes hit some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, which seriously injured four people.

Atlanta received a record 28.24 centimeters (11.12 inches) of rainfall in 48 hours, the most the city has seen in two days since records began in 1878, the Georgia Office of the State Climatologist said on a social media platform X. Some districts were so flooded that only the roofs of cars were visible above the water.

Moody’s Analytics said it expected between $15 billion and $26 billion in property damage.

Climate change has exacerbated the conditions that allow such storms to develop, intensifying rapidly in warming waters and sometimes turning into powerful cyclones within hours.

The Big Bend region was hit hard

Florida’s Big Bend is a part of the state where salt marshes and pine flats stretch to the horizon and are largely absent of the housing developments and shopping malls that used to occupy much of the state’s coastline.

It’s a place where Susan Sauls Hartway and her 4-year-old chihuahua, Lucy, could afford to live within walking distance of the beach on her housekeeper’s wages.

At least until Helene took her house.

On Friday afternoon, Hartway walked along her street near Ezell Beach, looking for where the storm might have hit her house.

“It’s gone. I don’t know where it is. I can’t find it,” she said of her home.

Born and raised in rural Taylor County, Hartway stated that there was no other place in the world she would rather be, even after Helene. But she has seen wealthier out-of-state residents buy second homes here. He wonders how many of them will sell out and what will happen to locals who have nowhere to go.

– There are so many people here, they have nowhere to go now. It was all they had,” she said.

Since August 2023, the community has been directly impacted by three hurricanes.

All five people who died in a Florida county were in neighborhoods where residents had been ordered to evacuate, said Bob Gualtieri, sheriff of Pinellas County in the St. Petersburg. Some who remained had to hide in attics to escape the rising waters. He said the death toll could rise as crews go door-to-door in flooded areas.

More deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas, including two South Carolina firefighters and a Georgia firefighter who died when trees hit their trucks. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin reported at least one death in his state.

Power loss and infrastructure damage

President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency traveled to the area. The agency delegated over 1,500 employees who helped rescue 400 people by late Friday morning.

Authorities urged trapped people to call rescuers and not to enter flood waters, warning they could be dangerous due to live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other contaminants.

In Georgia, a group of utilities warned of “catastrophic” damage to energy infrastructure, including more than 100 high-voltage transmission lines. Officials in South Carolina, where more than 40% of customers were without power, said crews had to dig through debris to determine what was still standing in some places.

The hurricane made landfall near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 30 kilometers northwest of where Hurricane Idalia hit with almost the same force last year. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene appears to be greater than the combined effects of August’s hurricanes Idalia and Debby.

The destruction reached far beyond Florida.

Historic flooding is expected

An Appalachian mudslide washed away part of the interstate on the North Carolina-Tennessee state line.

Another avalanche hit homes in North Carolina and residents had to wait more than four hours to be rescued, said Ryan Cole, deputy director of emergency services in Buncombe County. Its 911 center received more than 3,300 calls in eight hours on Friday.

“It’s something we’re going to be dealing with for many days and weeks to come,” Cole said.

Forecasters warned of flooding in North Carolina that could be worse than anything seen in the last century. The Connecticut Army National Guard sent a helicopter to help.

Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts this year’s hurricane season will be above-average due to record warm ocean temperatures.

Payne reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Seth Borenstein in New York; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Russ Bynum in Valdosta, Georgia; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Andrea Rodríguez in Havana; Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.