On Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene passed through six southeastern states: Georgia, Virginia,

Courtesy of Ashley Cho / The Highlander

Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina, according to Forbes, North Carolina faced the most damage. The storm touched down in the Big Bend area of the Florida Gulf Coast as a category four hurricane. Hurricane Helene has torn down power lines with gusts of winds and flooding, damaging property from the Gulf Coast to the North Carolina mountains. 

The thunderstorms on the east side of Helene created six confirmed tornadoes all on Sept. 27. They began at 6:04 a.m. with the Georgetown Tornado creating winds up to 65 miles per hour (mph) and stretched 2.42 miles in two minutes. Nearly 50 minutes later, at 6:53 am, the Hagley Landing Tornado followed a 5.5 mile path in six minutes with unknown wind speeds. At 7:30 a.m., the Centenary Tornado reached 65 mph winds and went 6.67 miles. The two Garland tornadoes were last with the first one beginning at 11:17 a.m spanning 4.98 miles with wind gusts of 75 mph and the second one at 11:22 a.m. reaching 95 mph winds across 4.86 miles, and ending at 11:30 a.m. All of the tornadoes were labeled moderate or minor, apart from the Hagley Landing Tornado which had an unknown level. 

CNN deems Hurricane Helene the second-deadliest hurricane in the U.S. mainland in the past 50 years, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which killed 1,833 people. The current death tolls per state is as follows: North Carolina, 117, South Carolina, 48, Georgia, 33, Florida, 20, Tennessee, 12 and Virginia, two. Furthermore, as of Oct. 4, Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller expressed that about 200 residents are either missing or stranded.

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Due to the impact of the hurricane, officials are working on a variety of recovery efforts. The Blue Ridge Parkway, a 400-mile-long parkway from North Carolina to Virginia, will be closed for the foreseeable future. Over 1,300 counties have sent emergency responders to assist with damages, the Fire Department of New York being one of them. Additionally, the power outages have impacted more than 460,000 residents in five states more than a week after the storm. 

South Carolina has the largest number of residents without electricity at 170,648. North Carolina has 144,711, Georgia has 131,262, Florida has 3,628 and Virginia has 3,594. Due to this quantity of power outages and property damage, the Transportation Department has sent emergency funds of $100 million to North Carolina for the roads and bridges.  

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, about two weeks after Helene, Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida as a category three hurricane with 120 mph winds. Milton moved across Florida then out to the Atlantic Ocean through Thursday, Oct. 10. Milton killed 16 people and left over 2 million Florida residents without power on Friday, Oct. 11.

Courtesy of AP

Leading up to his landfall on Tuesday Oct. 8, Milton was seen by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites approaching the Gulf Coast of Florida with sustained winds of 180 mph. At this point, Milton was a category five hurricane. 

Rescue teams have conducted over 4,200 rescues and assists. Of the 37 hurricanes to strike Florida since 1950, only Wilma in 2005 gained speed faster than Milton. President Joe Biden plans to visit the impacted areas in Florida in the coming weeks.

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