A Georgia mother and her infant twins, at least three firefighters and a 4-year-old child in North Carolina were among the dozens of people killed as Helene ripped across the south, leaving scores of others trapped in flooded buildings and millions more people stranded without power.
As of Saturday morning, 52 deaths had been linked to the monstrous storm system, at least 15 of them in Georgia.
Vernon “Leon” Davis, assistant chief at the Blackshear, Georgia Fire Department, had just finished setting up barricades around a downed power line when he was killed. He was driving away from the site when a tree fell on his pick-up truck around 1:15 a.m., local news reported.
“One of our finest lost his life trying to save others,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said.
More than 100 miles away in Thompson, a 28-year-old mother and her 1-month-old twins died after a tree fell on their home, according to McDuffie County Coroner Paul Johnson. He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution all three victims were in the same bed when they died.
At least 19 more were dead in South Carolina, including two firefighters in Saluda County, according to state officials.
Deaths were also reported in Florida, Virginia and North Carolina, where a 4-year-old child died in a traffic accident amid “heavy rain conditions” brought by the storm, according to the state Highway Patrol.
Helene blew ashore as a powerful Category 4 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday night, bringing torrential rain, a dangerous storm surge and wind speeds topping 140 mph. It carved a massive path of destruction through the Sunshine State, where roads were transformed into waterways and buildings both new and historic were ripped apart.
Shortly after landfall, Helene started to lose strength, weakening to a tropical storm as it raced inland toward Georgia. Despite the downgrade, Helene still wreaked havoc there before hitting South and North Carolina.
As of Saturday morning, much of western North Carolina was cut off after landslides and flooding forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roadways.
The storm on Saturday was designated a post-tropical cyclone with wind speeds of 35 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. That means Helene no longer had an organized center and was losing other hurricane-like features. It was forecast to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday.
Hundreds of dramatic rescues, some by boat and others by helicopter, have been carried out since Helene’s arrival, including one at a hospital in eastern Tennessee. Some 50 people were lifted from the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin amid fast-rising waters and high winds Friday.
In Florida, the efforts of 1,500 search-and-rescue personnel have been focused on securing and stabilizing affected communities through the weekend, said Kevin Guthrie, the state’s emergency operations director.
“As those sorts of rescue missions happen today, and continue, please do not go out and visit the impacted areas,” Guthrie said at a Friday news conference in the Florida capital of Tallahassee. “I beg of you, do not get in their way.”
Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect in parts of the southern and central Appalachian regions, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.