Dozens Dead Across Southeast After Hurricane Helene's Landfall in Florida

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Facts

  • At least 37 storm-related deaths have been confirmed across multiple Southeastern US states in the path of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall near Perry, Fla., as a Category 4 storm on Thursday night.[1][2][3]
  • According to state and county authorities, the death toll from the storm includes 17 fatalities in South Carolina, 11 in Georgia, seven in Florida, and two in North Carolina.[2][3]
  • With maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph), Helene was the seventh most powerful on record to hit the Sunshine State — and the 14th anywhere in the US.[2][4]
  • The storm has caused flooding across the Southeast, from Florida to North Carolina and Tennessee, destroyed homes, and left more than 4M people without electricity. In South Carolina, nearly half of electric customers faced outages.[5][6][7]
  • This is the eighth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, and the fourth to make landfall in the US — following Beryl in July, Debby in August, and Francine in September.[8][9]
  • Helene was downgraded to a tropical depression on its path north, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) about 125 miles from Louisville, Ky., as of 2 pm, and is expected to stall over the Tennessee Valley through the weekend.[3][10]

Sources: [1]Independent, [2]USA Today, [3]Associated Press, [4]New York Post, [5]E&E News by POLITICO, [6]Poweroutage, [7]The Weather Channel (a), [8]Forbes, [9]The Weather Channel (b) and [10]National Hurricane Center.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Vox. Climate change has made weather events from rains and storms to droughts and wildfires more extreme and common, and the deadly Hurricane Helene must serve as an alert. Leaders must take action soon to mitigate such disasters and combat climate change before these extreme events go beyond society's ability to effectively prepare for them.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It's easy to blame any strong hurricane on climate change, but in reality, they're usually influenced by a myriad of factors that have nothing to do with global warming. More research is needed before we can establish any direct causal link between the two.