Helene Has the US South Facing Another Deadly Flooding Day

(Bloomberg) -- Floodwaters threaten more damage in Georgia and South Carolina as the US South reels in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a storm that killed at least 84 people, destroyed homes and left millions without power even as forecasters look to the tropics for the next storm. 

While Helene has been completely absorbed by a larger weather system and the worst of the rain has passed, floodwaters are still rolling out of the mountains. They have devastated towns along the way, including Asheville, North Carolina, and threaten South Carolina’s capital, Columbia. The floods have also cut people off from supplies of fresh water, and the Greeneville Water Commission in Tennessee has told residents it isn’t sure when the damage will be repaired.

“We are still in a critical time especially with some of our points in South Carolina and Georgia,” said Todd Hamill, a hydrologist with the US Southeast River Forecast Center. “We are seeing some improvement but we still have 24 hours or so of critical spots especially in South Carolina.”

The storm may be one of the costliest. Flooding and destruction wrought by Helene may total between $95 billion and $110 billion, commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc. estimated. That would easily place it among the five worst hurricanes to hit the US. 

Meanwhile, Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler, has released a lower estimate of as much as $35 billion in damages and losses, with $20 billion from flooding alone. He said these figures could rise as more information comes in. 

Helene ripped ashore Sept. 26 in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale before driving north across Georgia into the Appalachian Mountains, where it touched off some of the worst flooding ever recorded. At least 84 people have died, according to the Associated Press. Many towns are cut off as roads washed out and phone service and power collapsed.

“This is the worst event in our office’s history,” the National Weather Service office in Greenville-Spartanburg wrote in a statement. “We are devastated by the horrific flooding and widespread wind damage that was caused by Hurricane Helene across our forecast area.”

Similarly, Georgia Power has determined Hurricane Helene was the most destructive hurricane in its history, damaging infrastructure across the state, the utility said in a statement.

A public health emergency has been declared in North Carolina, which now joins Georgia and Florida in receiving the federal designation, the US Health and Human Services department said in a statement. Teams will assess damage done to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities.

Earlier, President Joe Biden approved disaster declarations in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, according to a statement. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent more than 800 staff members to the region.

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In Columbia, the Congaree River is set to crest a foot above major flood stage Monday, the weather service said. Farther north, tornado warnings have broken out in southern Virginia and residents have been told to take cover. 

Search and rescue teams from 19 other states have deployed to North Carolina, so far helping to rescue more than 200 people from Helene’s floodwaters. Evacuations were ordered downstream from multiple dams in North Carolina and Tennessee.

‘Catastrophic Storm’

“This is a historic and catastrophic storm for western North Carolina and I’m grateful to first responders working right now to save lives and evacuate residents,” Governor Roy Cooper said in a statement. “Efforts are also underway to get power and communications restored, and we’re bringing in needed supplies by air.”

In Georgia, a large fire has reignited at a BioLab Inc. plant in Conyers closing roads and forcing residents in some neighborhoods in the city and surrounding area to flee, Rockdale County said on its Facebook page.

Along the Gulf, the US Coast Guard is working to open the ports of St. Petersburg in Florida and St. Joe in Alabama, which are among those still closed or with restricted hours.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has established a missing-person hotline to coordinate reports in flooded areas. 

Hamill said the river forecast center is working with power companies throughout the area as the utilities release water behind dams to plot the flow downstream. Across the region 62 river gauges were at flood stage with about 1% at major levels.

Larger System

As for Helene itself, it’s been absorbed into a larger weather system moving across the central Appalachian Mountains that’s bringing about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain to the region, said Bryan Jackson, a forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. The rain won’t fall at the extreme levels seen last week.

In the western Caribbean, where Helene formed, a patch of thunderstorms has a 50% chance of spinning up into a tropical depression or storm in the coming week, the National Hurricane Center said. 

Currently, the storm doesn’t look to be as strong as Helene but it could bring rain across Florida and Georgia, said Alex Sosnowski, a meteorologist with AccuWeather. The downpours likely won’t reach up into harder-hit portions of the Appalachian Mountains now reeling. However, this system needs to be watched. 

“We are thinking there is going to be some slow-brew development — we are not looking at a high-end tropical system like a major hurricane,” Sosnowski said in an interview.

(Updates with Georgia Power in eighth paragraph. A previous version corrected the death toll in the first deck headline.)

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