Helene weakened to a tropical storm Friday hours after it made landfall as a powerful hurricane in the US state of Florida, with officials warning the deadly storm remained “dangerous” as it surged inland, leaving flooded roads and homes in its wake.
The storm tore a destructive path through Florida into neighbouring Georgia, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, warning residents to stay sheltered “through the passage of these life-threatening conditions.”
“Helene continues to produce hurricane force winds that are moving further into Georgia,” the center said in a recent bulletin.
“Life-threatening storm surge, winds, and heavy rains continue.”
Three people had died from conditions caused by Helene as of early Friday — one in Florida and two in Georgia — the states’ respective governors said.
One person was killed when a sign fell on a highway in coastal Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said.
Two people were killed in Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp said, with local media reporting the man and woman were killed when their trailer was picked up by a tornado.
Images on US media showed ripped billboard signs whipping in high winds and sparks flying from power lines, as more than two million people were without power across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, according to tracking site PowerOutage.us.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of “catastrophic and life-threatening flash/urban flooding, including landslides,” across swathes of the region many miles inland from the coast.
The agency had warned the region could be hit extremely hard, with floods not seen in more than a century.
“This will be one of the most significant weather events to happen in the western portions of the area in the modern era,” it said.
The warnings came even as the storm had weakened to a Category 1 on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale and then to a tropical storm with maximum sustained wind speeds of 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour, having slammed into the southeastern US coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane packing winds of 140 miles per hour.
– ‘Biggest flood’ –
The storm flooded homes and roads in Florida, where residents had been warned of “unsurvivable” storm surge.
Tampa Bay resident Matt Heller told CNN his home had been submerged in four feet (1.2 metres) of water within a half hour of the storm hitting, as he took refuge in a kayak in his flooded living room.
“This is definitely the biggest biggest flood we’ve ever had,” he said.
US President Joe Biden and state authorities had urged people to heed official evacuation warnings before Helene hit, though some chose stay in their homes to wait out the storm.
“I am going to hunker down” and ride out the hurricane, said Patrick Riickert, as he did in 2018 when deadly Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 mega storm, blew through the Florida panhandle.
He had refused to budge from his small wooden house in Crawfordville, a town of 5,000 people a few miles inland.
Most residents had bolted, but Riickert, his wife and five grandchildren were “not going anywhere,” the 58-year-old told AFP.
In Taylor County, officials had asked residents who did not act on mandatory evacuation warnings to write their names on their bodies with permanent marker, to aid in identification if they are killed.
– ‘Remain vigilant’ –
Rescue workers were deployed in Lee County on Florida’s coast, the sheriff said on X, sharing videos of men in high-vis gear battling against high winds to launch a rescue boat.
DeSantis had mobilized the National Guard and ordered thousands of personnel to ready for search and rescue operations, urging residents to take precautions.
“We can’t control how strong this hurricane is going to get. We can’t control the track of the hurricane, but what you can control is what you can do to put yourself in the best chance to be able to ride this out in a way that’s going to be safe,” DeSantis said.
Georgia’s Kemp, in a message of condolences for the two killed by the tornado, urged “all Georgians to brace for further impact from Helene, remain vigilant, and pray for all those affected” in a post on X.
Scientists say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on.
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