Tag Archives: Southeastern states

Death toll tops 160 after Helene leaves “unimaginable” destruction in 6 states

Storm damaged cars sit along Mill Creek

Important Takeaways:

  • Hurricane Helene has left officials in six Southeastern states grappling to respond to the widespread destruction it caused after hitting Florida as a Category 4 storm last week.
  • More than 500,000 customers were without power in South Carolina and nearly 380,000 others in Georgia were without electricity on Wednesday morning, per poweroutage.us.
  • Over 349,000 in N.C., nearly 47,000 in Virginia and almost 41,000 in Florida also had no power, according to the utility tracker.
  • The American Red Cross has received more than 3,000 requests for help from those looking for lost loved ones in the last 24 hours, and the agency reported more than 2,400 survivors in 75 shelters from Florida to North Carolina, Axios reported.

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Storms and sweltering heat seen hitting U.S. South on Memorial Day

FILE PHOTO: A path of destruction through the Skyview Mobile Park Estates is seen in an aerial photo after a tornado touched down overnight in El Reno, Oklahoma, U.S. May 26, 2019. REUTERS/Richard Rowe

By Rich McKay

(Reuters) – Sweltering heat, storms and possible twisters were expected to hit the U.S. southern Plains and southeastern states on Memorial Day after a spate of deadly tornadoes and flooding in the region.

Temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) were forecast in cities from Jacksonville, Florida, up the southeast into Macon and Savannah Georgia, and on to Charleston, South Carolina, the National Weather Service said.

“This is super hot for this time of year,” said John Deese, a NWS forecaster in Peachtree, Ga., near Atlanta.

“This is a heat wave across the south, and it’s going to be here for a while,” said Deese, predicting high temperatures through the week staying in the mid to high 90s in the region.

The risk of strong tornadoes are moderate but remain possible through the week for the southeastern Plains states, already hit by lethal twisters last week, forecasters said.

The latest severe tornado killed two people in El Reno, Oklahoma late Saturday, injured at least 29 people, and left hundreds homeless, officials said.

Four more people were killed in the same storm in Oklahoma, CNN reported Sunday.

Rescue workers on Sunday searched for survivors in the rubble left by the tornado that devastated parts of the small community near Oklahoma City, officials said.

At least seven other people were killed by storms last week.

U.S. southern Plains including Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas and parts of Ohio will remain under flood watches and warnings through the week, as rains, wind, hail and possible twisters are in the forecast, said David Roth of the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park Maryland.

As for the southeast from Florida to Virginia – “It’ll stay hot,” he said. “This weather pattern is just parked, persistent.”

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Andrew Heavens)