Emergency teams are working to restore power supplies and deal with the consequences of the numerous floods that have destroyed homes, roads and commercial establishments in several states.
“I am deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation caused by Hurricane ‘Helene’,” declared US President Joe Biden, adding that “the road to recovery will be long.”
“Helene” made landfall in northwest Florida on Thursday night, as a category 4 hurricane on a scale of 5, with winds of 225 kilometers per hour, and passed through several states in the country, causing torrential rain before gradually weakening and now transforming into a post-tropical cyclone.
“Conditions will continue to improve Saturday following the catastrophic flooding of the past two days,” the National Hurricane Center (NHC) wrote.
But the storm left a trail of vast areas destroyed by landslides and intense flooding, as far away as Asheville, North Carolina.
“This is one of the worst storms in modern history in parts of western North Carolina,” said state governor Roy Cooper at a press conference on Friday night.
Rescue operations continue, his office said.
More than a million homes remained without electricity this afternoon in South Carolina, as well as 730,000 in Georgia and several hundred thousand in several other states, according to the Internet monitoring site poweroutage.us.
After forming in the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane “Helene” moved over particularly warm waters.
“It is likely that these very warm waters played a role in the rapid intensification of ‘Helene’,” said climatologist Andra Garner, quoted by the French news agency AFP.
According to scientists, by warming sea waters, climate change increases the likelihood of storms intensifying quickly and increasing the risk of stronger hurricanes.
“Helene” was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year due to record ocean temperatures.
