It made landfall on the coast of the southeastern United States, being considered extremely dangerous. However, it was later downgraded to a tropical storm.
Hurricane Helene left three fatalities in the United Statesprecisely in the states of Georgia and Florida. Rated as “extremely dangerous” According to meteorological services, it made landfall on the southeast coast with winds that reached 225 km/h.
He US Hurricane Center (NHC) published a bulletin indicating that the hurricane arrived at scale 4 out of a total of 5, enough power to end the lives of a man and a woman when his trailer was swept away by a tornado in the state of Georgia.
rainfall Helene September 26 2024.JPG
Image taken from Zoom Earth.
On the other hand, the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantisreported the death of another person struck by strong winds while driving through the city of Tampa. He then mobilized the National Guard for possible search, rescue and power restoration operations.
Around 11:30 a.m. local, Helene first reached the “Big Bend”a region of Florida full of forests. At that time, The NHC warned on its social networks: “The entire coast of Florida’s Big Bend is at risk of potentially catastrophic storm surge.”
The Tallahassee and Tampa airports were forced to close, and more than two million homes were left without electricity for several hours, according to data from PowerOutage.us. In addition, several inhabitants of coastal towns had to evacuate their cities in search of refuge.
Helene was downgraded to a tropical storm
After the tragedy, the NHC notified that this Friday morning “Helene weakened to a tropical storm as it moves further inland into Georgia.”
However, it continues to warn of possible heavy rains and strong winds, which keep a 402 km stretch of coast on alert, from Tampa to Panama City. For this reason, it advises that all the corresponding precautions continue to be taken.
Likewise, the hurricane center reported 51 centimeters of rain in isolated points in the interior that caused life-threatening flooding, as well as various landslides that were evident in the southern Appalachians.
Hurricane Helen was the fifth to hit the Atlantic this season, and one of the most powerful in recent times on the Gulf coasts, according to official reports.
Source: Ambito
