Fears of ‘catastrophic’ flooding as US hurricane deaths rise to 44
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell, said ‘over 600 rescues’ have been conducted
Nearly four million Americans were still in the dark and many faced torrential flooding on Saturday, authorities said, as powerful storm Helene marched across eastern US states, leaving at least 44 people dead.
Emergency responders had launched massive rescue operations across multiple states since Helene slammed into Florida as a Category 4 hurricane and surged north, leaving roads, homes, and businesses underwater – many of them destroyed.
Power had been restored in some areas since night fell over the region on Friday, but nearly four million customers were still without electricity across 10 states in the early hours of Saturday, with US meteorologists warning of possible “long-duration” outages.
While Helene has weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, it has continued to wreak havoc with heavy rains that the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said would result in “catastrophic and potentially life-threatening flash and urban flooding.”
More evacuations were ordered overnight into Saturday as flooding threatened to breach dams in North Carolina and Tennessee.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned an eastern Tennessee dam was on the verge of failure and urged downstream communities to “move immediately to higher ground.”
