The text of this article was updated 9/29/24 to reflect new information.
More than 48 hours after Hurricane Helene made landfall, communities from Florida and south Georgia to east Tennessee and western North Carolina are still coming to grips with just how widespread its impacts have been, as early estimates of the damage range widely in the tens of billions of dollars.
As storm clouds cleared, communities across the Southeast are seeing how extensive the rebuild effort will be, as highways in steep, rural areas collapse, structures wash away and millions remain without electricity.
Heavy, historic levels of rain brought catastrophic flash flooding in the southern Appalachians, including in western North Carolina where landslides and flooding closed Interstates 40 and 26, as well as other smaller roads. The city of Asheville was virtually unreachable except by air Sunday morning as residents surveyed washed-out roads and piled-up debris as landslides and other impacts continued.
Lillian Govus, director of communications for Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, told local news station WLOS Sunday that “this has been a disaster of unquantifiable proportions and this is the Hurricane Katrina of our community. We can’t understate just how destructive this has been and continues to be.”
According to Accuweather, multiple places in western North Carolina saw more than 30 in. of rainfall—including Jeter Mountain, which recorded 32.51 in.—while multiple areas recorded more than 20 in. In Atlanta, more than 11 in. fell in 24 hours, the most since 1886.
Dramatic images made the rounds on social media, showing roads and bridges washing out and providing aerial views of historic flooding across the Southern Appalachian region.
In a Facebook post, the Greenville-Spartanburg office of the National Weather Service in South Carolina addressed residents of the western Carolinas and northeast Georgia, saying it has been “devastated by the horrific flooding and widespread wind damage” the storm brought to its coverage area, and describing it as “the worst event in our office’s history.”
A Saturday release from the office of North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said rescue and recovery operations continue amid communications problems, with Cooper adding, “the catastrophic devastation to western North Carolina is like nothing we have ever seen.”
The release says more than 200 people had been rescued as of 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, with 10 confirmed dead in North Carolina.
Total deaths attributed to the storm have climbed to 64, according to reporting from NPR, which cites Moody’s Analytics in an estimate of $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage, while Accuweather predicts between $95 billion and $110 billion.
Infrastructure Under Pressure
Helene’s extensive impacts to interstates, dams, electrical transmission lines and other major infrastructure began to come into view over the weekend as floodwaters started gradually receding.
On its website tracking road closures, the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation (NCDOT) tells visitors not to travel in or to western North Carolina, saying “all roads in western North Carolina should be considered closed and non-emergency travel is prohibited. I-40 is impassable in multiple locations. I-26 is closed at the Tennessee state line.”
On the Tennessee side, a similar banner on its website says that all roads in upper east Tennessee should be considered potentially hazardous and motorists should avoid traveling in the area unless they’re doing so to seek higher ground.
All Tennessee interstates that cross the Appalachian Mountains to the east, including 40 and 26, as well as smaller roads around Gatlinburg and connecting to I-40 from Sevierville and Newport, are also closed.
In Lake Lure, N.C., south of Asheville, heavy rains overtopped an almost 100-year-old dam, and while the dam ultimately held, flowing water devastated the town of Chimney Rock nearby, where videos posted to social media show roadways entirely washed away and replaced by banks of silt alongside collapsed buildings.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates dams and power generation facilities along the Tennessee River system from North Carolina to Kentucky, reported Saturday afternoon that its Nolichucky Dam in Greene County, Tenn., was stable and holding, just hours after it issued a warning that the dam was in danger of imminent failure.
Evacuation orders were still in place for the area, TVA says, with dam safety assessments ongoing and continuing as water recedes. By Saturday, TVA expected the Nolichucky to have crested, with the peak estimated at 8 ft over the previous record high elevation.
Dramatic videos reported by local news station WBIR in Tennessee show flood waters entirely washing away a highway bridge over the Nolichucky River on State Route 107 in Greene County.
Fight to Restore Electricity Continues
Millions were still without power Sunday across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, including more than 900,000 in South Carolina and more than 683,000 in Georgia.
In an update Saturday, Duke Energy says power had been restored for 600,000 customers in Florida, with 150,000 still without power. However, the utility announced that its 8,000-person response team was able to forecast a 11:59 p.m. Sunday time of restoration for the rest of its Florida customers.
In the Carolinas, Duke Energy had restored power to 723,000 customers by the end of the day Saturday, as work continues and the company was assessing restoration times for the hardest-hit areas, with roughly 1.1 million customers still without power at that time.
“Workers continue to encounter major challenges accessing areas across the North Carolina mountains and Upstate of South Carolina, limiting the company’s ability to assess damage and provide customers with estimates for when power is likely to be restored,” Duke’s statement says.
Except for the western parts of the states, Duke says its South Carolina and North Carolina customers should have power restored by 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
Florida Power and Light reported that more than 95% of its customers had their power restored by 5 p.m. Saturday, a total of almost 650,000 customers, while roughly 33,000 customers remained without power. Its estimated time of restoration for those was Monday, Sept. 30.
In Georgia, Georgia Power had restored power to 520,000 customers by 8 p.m. Saturday.
Damage Assessments Underway in Hurricane Helen's Wake; Sept. 27:
Hurricane Helene continued its destructive path across the Southeast Friday, leaving millions without power and more than 20 people dead as federal and state officials began to assess the magnitude of its impact.
Making landfall at 11:10 p.m. ET Thursday with 140-mph winds after strengthening to a Category 4 storm as it traversed the Gulf of Mexico, Helene ranked as the most powerful storm on record to hit Florida’s Big Bend region near Tallahassee.
Weakening to a tropical storm about six hours later, it continued to bring heavy rain and flooding as it moved northeast across Georgia and into the Carolinas. Heavy rains led to flooding in Georgia and the Carolinas, and record flood crests were recorded on several rivers in Western North Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Water Overtops North Carolina Dam; Interstates Closed
Rutherford County Emergency Management Services issued an evacuation order for the area below Lake Lure dam in Lake Lure, N.C., a small mountain town of roughly 1,400 people, saying in a 10 a.m. Facebook post Friday that water was overtopping the dam and its failure was imminent.
According to the town’s website, the dam was constructed in 1926 by hydraulic engineer Mees & Mees, impounding roughly 720 acres and generating hydroelectricity.
Broad River water levels at Lake Lure Dam, measured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported a steep rise to above flood stage at 991.3 ft from its normal pool level of 990 ft above sea level.
As in other places in Western North Carolina, steep terrain with heavy rain means flash flooding. Lake Lure is located within the Hickory Nut Gorge. Chimney Rock, which looks down on Lake Lure, is 2,280 ft above sea level.
In a news call with reporters Friday morning, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Brig. Gen. Daniel Hibner said he had yet to receive reports of any dam failures as of 11 a.m., but noted the thousands of vulnerable local municipal and private dams throughout the country.
“In an event like this, the saturation-inundation can sometimes compromise the integrity of the structure of a levee or dam, and when that flash flooding happens, it can cause a failure,” he said. “I can’t say that I’m very surprised to hear that there was a dam failure, and I would be surprised if there weren’t multiple throughout this area.”
Local news reports from Cocke County, Tenn., say the Waterville Dam has suffered a catastrophic failure, citing County Mayor Rob Mathis, who is urging people to higher ground and to evacuate downtown Newport, Tenn.
In Charlotte, local news outlets say Duke Energy has opened floodgates at Cowan's Ford Dam, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management is asking residents in the area to prepare to evacuate the affected area.
Duke Energy, which operates 11 lakes and 12 hydroelectric stations in the Catawba-Wateree basin, prepared for high levels of runoff by aggressively moving water through those facilities in the days ahead of Helene's landfall, according to a Sept. 26 release.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation (NCDOT) said all roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed, including Interstates 40 and 26. Eastbound lanes on Interstate 40, according to social media posts, have been entirely washed out.
NCDOT spokesperson Jen Goodwin says NCDOT has received several reports of damaged locations along I-40 near the state line, continuing about four miles into North Carolina.
"We haven't been able to assess the full damages yet, and we don't have a timeline for repairs," she says. "We are asking drivers to avoid this area, as there isn't a simple detour."
Mark Nagi, Tennessee Dept. of Transportation's (TDOT) regional communications officer for East Tennessee, reported that on the Tennessee side, I-40 East is closed at mile markers 432 and 435 in Cocke County due to flooding.
Power Outages, Flooding Widespread Friday
As many as 4.4 million people were without power due to the storm, according to Ken Buell, deputy director, cybersecurity, energy security and emergency response with the U.S. Dept. of Energy. He says more than 50,000 utility personnel from 27 states are on hand to assist in power restoration.
Days ahead of the storm, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency for 41 of Florida’s 67 counties, with expected impacts including damage to critical infrastructure including interstates, bridges, airports, schools and power grids. Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina also issues states of emergency ahead of Helene’s landfall.
By 10:30 a.m., more than 1 million customers were without power in each Florida and Georgia, and more than 1.3 million in South Carolina, according to online tracker poweroutage.us. Just under 670,000 were without power in North Carolina, 97,000 in Virginia and almost 75,000 in Tennessee.
Florida Power and Light (FPL) reported that more than 65% of its customers affected by the hurricane had been restored by 6 a.m. Friday, a total of more than 460,000 customers with roughly 214,000 still without power. FPL deployed more than 10,000 workers from 23 states for the effort, staged at 14 locations.
Duke Energy, which serves customers in Florida and the Carolinas, reported that power had been restored to nearly 198,000 customers by 7:30 a.m. Friday by the company’s 8,000 workers staged at seven Florida locations which were still working to restore power to more than 400,000 others.
Western North Carolina experienced intense flash flooding from Hurricane Helene's rainfall, including in Lake Lure, where a nearly 100-yr-old dam was at risk of failure after water began flowing over it. Photo courtesy NCDOT via Facebook
Aaron Moody, spokesperson for North Carolina Dept. of Transportation (NCDOT), says several interstates and other primary roads, and dozens of secondary roads, have been flooded. Some have been impacted by landslides as well, while he says it’s too early to tell the full extent of damages.
A major project in the path of Helene is NCDOT’s Interstate 26 widening project in Henderson and Buncombe Counties, and Moody says the interstate remains closed until NCDOT can safely assess the damage.
“It will take time before we can answer this question in detail and with great confidence,” he says, on Helene’s impact on the state’s highway infrastructure, noting that along with I-26, Interstate 40 has also been impacted by flooding and landslides as well.
Crews have installed barricades to protect people from impacted areas and are at work removing fallen trees and other debris from roadways, Moody adds, with crews coming in from the eastern part of the state to assist.
In South Carolina, Dept. of Transportation spokesperson Hannah Robinson says more than 2,300 staff have been mobilized to clear downed trees, downed powerlines, debris and traffic signal outages.
“SCDOT prioritizes interstate and primary routes, and those with critical facilities like hospitals,” she says. “At this time, I currently do not have a number [of impacted roads] to share with you.”
The state’s online road condition tracker shows dozens of closed roads, mainly in the western part of the state, centered around Pickens.
Jennifer Pippa, vice president of disaster programs for the American Red Cross, reported that there are at least 9,400 evacuees across 143 shelters, and the Red Cross is supporting another 45 emergency shelters in cooperation with state emergency operations centers.
Data Gathering, Damage Assessments Ongoing
In a conference call with media outlets Friday, federal officials from FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Weather Service, Corps of Engineers and others updated reporters on the status of the storm and its response, saying it’s still too early to know just how damaging Helene was in the Southeast.
“It is early,” said FEMA Deputy Administrator Erik Hooks, on assessing damage to property and infrastructure. “We are in contact with communities throughout Florida and are coordinating on the plan for damage assessments as it is safe to do so.”
Vice Admiral Nathan Moore, commander of the Atlantic area for the U.S. Coast Guard, said more than 8,400 members from across the Atlantic region were responding to the hurricane, and that personnel are flying over the coastline to identify areas to pinpoint for closer assessment in order to focus work and identify structural impacts.
According to Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service, a peak storm surge has yet to be confirmed, but a surge of more than 6 ft was measured in Tampa, which was at least 100 miles east of the center of the storm, and that tropical storm-force winds of at least 75 mph were measured 350 miles from the storm center, “which is pretty staggering.”
He said surges will likely have measured up to 15 ft in some places.
“It really shows the extent of this thing,” he said, noting that inland rainfall amounts were measured as high as 11 in. in some places, and as high as 2 ft. near Mount Mitchell in Western North Carolina.
In Florida, Hibner said efforts are being focused on the Big Bend area around the capitol city of Tallahassee, an area he noted has been frequently impacted by storms in the past.
“We’re still at the point of getting our assessments done to determine exactly what kind of infrastructure may have been damaged,” he said. The Corps has mobilized more than 100 civilian and military personnel for the effort with about 170 contractors.
