{"id":50289,"date":"2024-09-28T17:20:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T21:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=50289"},"modified":"2024-09-28T17:20:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T21:20:21","slug":"hurricane-helene-at-least-60-dead-in-5-states-damage-could-top-100-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/09\/28\/hurricane-helene-at-least-60-dead-in-5-states-damage-could-top-100-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Helene: At Least 60 Dead In 5 States; Damage Could Top $100 Billion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Hurricane Helene’s death toll climbed to 60 people Saturday, experts said the storm is expected to be one of the costliest in U.S. history due to its devastating storm surge, damaging winds, and flooding.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A preliminary assessment released by Accuweather on Saturday estimates the total damage and economic loss from Helene will be between $95 billion and $110 billion. The estimate includes damage to homes, businesses, roads, vehicles and the effects of power outages, as well as lost wages, flight delays, damage to the supply chain and more, AccuWeather said in a release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other catastrophic storms include Hurricane Ian in 2022, which caused about $180 to $210 billion in damage; Hurricanes Harvey and Irma with a combined total of about $270 billion; Hurricane Sandy in 2012 with $210 billion; and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with damages of about $320 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 60 people are dead after Helene came ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday, packing winds of 140 mph before quickly moving through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. The storm uprooted trees, splintered homes, sent creeks and rivers over their banks, and strained dams.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Those killed in the storm included three firefighters, a woman and her 1-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was struck by a falling tree. According to an Associated Press tally, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect in parts of the southern and central Appalachians, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power was restored for 1.86 million customers in Florida, while 532,000 remained without it, Gov. Ron DeSantis said around 10 p.m. Friday on social media. As of 2:30 p.m. Saturday, 398,214 customers remained without power, according to poweroutage.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While much of the focus this week was on Florida\u2019s Big Bend region, more deaths were recorded in Pinellas County as of Friday morning than any other county in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least two died by drowning, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in a news conference on Friday morning. Two of the victims were found on Treasure Island, two in Indian Rocks Beach and one in Dunedin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Helene passed more than 100 miles offshore, Tyler Fleming, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tampa, told the Washington Post<\/a> the storm\u2019s large wind field contributed to the unusually high storm surge in the Tampa Bay region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI honestly would have expected to see this kind of surge number from a storm making a closer landfall to the Tampa Bay,\u201d Fleming said. \u201cThis speaks to the unusual nature of Helene, how big the wind field was and how quickly it was moving to cause these huge surge numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 1,500 emergency workers are focusing on search and rescue efforts in Florida after Helene, Florida’s top emergency management official said Friday, according to Accuweather.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Workers clear debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo\/Gerald Herbert)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

“As those sorts of rescue missions happen today, and continue, please do not go out and visit the impacted areas,” said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “I beg of you, do not get in their way.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Florida airports have reopened following the storm, including Tampa and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airports. Some flight cancellations or delays are being reported, so travelers should check with airlines directly on specific flight updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several bridges crossing Tampa Bay were closed during the worst of the storm, according to authorities. The Howard Frankland Bridge fully reopened Friday afternoon after northbound lanes were closed for nearly 24 hours. By Friday evening, the Gandy and Sunshine Skyway Bridges also reopened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Courtney Campbell Causeway fully reopened Saturday morning, state police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden said he was praying for survivors, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency headed to the area. The agency deployed more than 1,500 workers, and they helped with 400 rescues by late Friday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials urged people who were trapped to call for rescuers and not tread floodwaters, warning they can be dangerous due to live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Hurricane Helene’s death toll climbed to 60 people Saturday, experts said the storm is expected to be one of the costliest in U.S. history due to its devastating storm… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":50290,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/hurricane-helene-10.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[9895],"class_list":["post-50289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-hurricane-helene-at-least-60-dead-in-5-states-damage-could-top-100-billion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50293,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50289\/revisions\/50293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}