Yahoo News Hurricane Helene by the numbers: Catastrophic destruction covers 400 miles
After making landfall in Florida's Big Bend region Thursday night as a major Category 4 hurricane, Helene has caused catastrophic storm surge, wind damage and inland flooding across a wide swath of the South.
Here's a look at the storm by the numbers, as impacted communities continue to gain a fuller picture of the deadly destruction.
Category 4
Helene was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the Big Bend region on record, making landfall near Perry, Florida, as a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds.
400 miles
Helene left a widespread path of destruction across the Southeast -- from Florida's Big Bend to Asheville, North Carolina, nearly 400 miles from where the storm made landfall.
MORE: Hurricane Helene live updates: 120 dead, including 35 in Asheville area
Nearly 160 dead
At least 159 people have been killed by Helene in six states -- Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia -- The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
That includes 57 people dead in hard-hit Buncombe County, North Carolina, which encompasses Asheville, county officials said Tuesday. Some 600 people were unaccounted for as of Monday amid widespread power and cell service outages, county officials said.
There have been 36 confirmed fatalities in South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster said Tuesday.
In Unicoi County in Tennessee, at least 73 people remained unaccounted for as of Sunday morning, local officials said.
More than 30 inches of rain
Helene, and a separate system earlier in the week, dumped more than 30 inches of rain on North Carolina and produced the biggest local flooding in recorded history.
The flooding in western North Carolina surpassed records that stood for more than a century. The French Broad River in Asheville peaked at 24.67 feet, breaking the previous record of 23.1 feet from July 1916.
Elsewhere, Georgia saw a historic 11 inches of rainfall from the combination of Hurricane Helene and a storm earlier in the week.
MORE: PHOTOS: Hurricane Helene makes landfall in the South
15-foot storm surge
The storm surge was more than 15 feet above ground level in parts of Florida, including Keaton Beach and Steinhatchee, both in Taylor County, and Horseshoe Beach in Dixie County.
Record storm surge also hit the Tampa Bay area, with 7.2 feet reported in Tampa East Bay -- beating a record of 4.56 feet set in 2023.
Over 20 reported tornadoes
There were more than 20 reported tornadoes across five states -- Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia -- amid the storm.
In Rocky Mount, North Carolina, 15 people were injured -- including four seriously -- after a tornado tore through the city on Friday, the National Weather Service said.
400 roads closed in 1 state
In North Carolina, extreme floods washed away homes and bridges. At one point, authorities closed 400 roads, deeming them unsafe for travel, state officials said.
🚨 REMINDER: 𝘼𝙇𝙇 𝙍𝙊𝘼𝘿𝙎 in Western North Carolina should be considered 𝘾𝙇𝙊𝙎𝙀𝘿.
I-40 and I-26 are impassable in multiple locations.
⚠️ Travel in this area for non-emergency purposes is hindering needed emergency response.#ncwx #Helene pic.twitter.com/jtK2ZMJW9T
— NCDOT (@NCDOT) September 28, 2024
As of Monday, travel in western North Carolina should only be for emergencies, as hundreds of Helene-related road issues persisted, officials said.
In Florida, emergency responders had to bulldoze 4 to 5 feet of sand off roads in the wake of Helene, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday while updating that all state roads were expected to have reopened by the end of the day.
4 million customers lost power
More than 4 million customers lost power across the South on Friday in the wake of Helene.
Nearly 1.5 million customers were still without power as of Tuesday evening.
Thousands of rescues
Thousands of successful rescue missions were reported in Florida, DeSantis said Monday.
In North Carolina, more than 200 people had been rescued from floodwaters amid Helene, Gov. Roy Cooper said Saturday. Over 150 rescues were performed in Buncombe County alone, officials said.
In Tennessee's Unicoi County, 54 patients and staff were rescued via helicopter on Friday after getting trapped on the roof of a hospital amid swiftly rising floodwaters.
ABC News' Melissa Griffin and Max Golembo contributed to this report.
Hurricane Helene by the numbers: Catastrophic destruction covers 400 miles originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
