The figures left by the catastrophic Hurricane Helene in the United States are tragic. Until late Friday afternoon, authorities had counted at least 42 deaths in four states in the country, not to mention the number of injured and the losses from property damage, as there are homes and businesses destroyed by the force of the winds and torrential rains. All of this adds to the average of four million people left without electricity and over 700 canceled flights.
The approximate figure of 42 deaths was reported by NBC News, notifying that rescue agencies are still deployed in the affected areas.
President Joe Biden declared a disaster zone in the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama.
Seven of the deaths caused by Helene were in Florida, one of them is a man who was driving a car when a tree fell on him, the individual was in the area known as Big Bend, while others died from drowning in the floods.
In Georgia, 15 deaths were reported, two of them are people who were swept away by a tornado, in addition to a rescuer. In North Carolina (where at least 100 people were rescued from floods, according to The Post) there are also fatalities, one of them being a four-year-old girl who lost her life in a car accident due to the bad weather; there are also fatalities in South Carolina.
The winds exceeded 140 mph, causing landslides, storm surges, impassable roads, and destroyed properties.
Residents in the state were subject to deadly landslides around Asheville when government officials ordered residents near the Swannanoa River, reaching its highest level in history, to evacuate. More than two million were under flash flood warnings until noon on Friday.
Hurricane Helene and its power
The New York Post reported that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared that Hurricane Helene has been the "worst" to hit the state, and that its force destroyed buildings that had survived hurricanes Idalia and Debbie.
“The areas that were hit in Idalia and Debbie said that this was more extensive than both combined, so I think you’re going to see buildings that survived those two storms that didn’t make it through this storm,” DeSantis said at a press conference, as reported by the aforementioned media outlet.