Helene live updates: Death toll rises to at least 50 as hurricane unleashes floods, tornadoes and landslides

Jennifer Replogle, a pregnant mother of two young children, told CNN that she has been “completely trapped” at her home in Tater Hill, N.C., a mountainous area near Boone that has been hit by historic flooding.

“We weren’t prepared for this,” she texted a CNN reporter on Saturday. “The roads are gone, like completely gone.”

Replogle said she hasn't had power since early Friday. According to PowerOutage.us, more than 631,000 people were still without power in North Carolina on Saturday evening.

CNN reports:

Click here for more from CNN on what's happening in western North Carolina.

Asheville, North Carolina's largest mountain town, was essentially cut off on Saturday after Hurricane Helene left damaged and flooded roads and a lack of electricity in its wake.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for Asheville and the surrounding areas on Friday, saying that all roads to western North Carolina "should be considered closed."

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said on Friday that "when tropical weather crosses into our mountains, it can be deadly," adding that storms that hit the mountains need different emergency resources.

"Just a few years ago, Tropical Storm Fred shocked our mountain regions with torrential rain, sweeping away homes, bridges and lives," he said, according to local news outlet WRAL. "With Helene, this can happen again."

A flood warning was in effect until Monday evening, the NWS said. Water levels of the French Broad River, which runs through Asheville into Tennessee, were recorded at 23.1 feet, which meteorologists said "is the highest stage observed" since measurements began in 1895. "Devastating flooding of adjacent areas of the French Broad River Valley is likely."

A Fox Weather meteorologist rescued a woman from rising floodwaters in Atlanta on Friday — and it was all caught on camera.

Bob Van Dillen was reporting on Hurricane Helene in Atlanta, which was under a rare flash-flood emergency from the National Weather Service.

According to Fox Weather, Van Dillen "heard a woman's desperate cries for help" after she drove into floodwaters and got trapped in her car as the water continued to rise.

"I just put the microphone down and called 911," Van Dillen said. "I know that those guys are swamped, so we waited about five minutes. She was getting panicked a little bit more because the water was coming up a little bit higher."

The meteorologist pulled the woman from the car and carried her to safety to dry land.

Click here for more from Fox Weather on the rescue.

In a statement on Saturday, President Biden said he and Vice President Kamala Harris "remain focused on life-saving and life-sustaining response and recovery efforts" after Helene made landfall in the Southeast.

"I am being regularly briefed by my team on the ongoing response efforts, and my Administration is in constant contact with state and local officials to ensure communities have the support and resources they need," he said, adding that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell "is traveling throughout the Southeast to assess the damage alongside other state and local officials."

"The road to recovery will be long, but know that my Administration will be with you every step of the way. We’re not going to walk away. We’re not going to give up," Biden said. He also said that his administration will make sure "no resource is spared to ensure that families, businesses, schools, hospitals, and entire communities can quickly begin their road to rebuilding."

The Augusta National Golf Club has been assessing the damage after Hurricane Helene hit Georgia on Friday, bringing with it destructive winds that brought down trees and caused other damage.

Yahoo Sports' Jay Busbee reports:

Read more from Yahoo Sports here.

At least 52 people have been killed in recent days after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and spread throughout the Southeast, according to the Associated Press.

The deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Read more from the AP here.

South Carolina still has more than 1 million customers without power, according to PowerOutage.us. While utility companies were working to immediately restore power, officials warned it might take a long time.

Around 40% of the state was without power on Friday, local station WLTX reported. Dominion Energy South Carolina President Keller Kissam said crews are working 24 hours a day, and bringing in more workers from Alabama and Mississippi.

“You will be frustrated. Tomorrow it’s going to be 86 degrees and clear. You’re going to say ‘Why can’t I watch the football game? Why can’t my life be back to normal?’" Kissam said Friday, per the news outlet. "Life’s not going to be back to normal until probably the middle of next week."

Rob Hochstetler, CEO of Central Electric Power Cooperative, said some of his employees described the damage from Helene as the most destructive they've seen.

CNN reports:

The National Hurricane Center said in an advisory Saturday morning that Helene, now a post-tropical cyclone, is still bringing "catastrophic, historic flooding" over parts of southern Appalachia.

Forecasters did note that "the risk for additional heavy rainfall continues to wane."

"Most of the rainfall across the central and southern Appalachians has come to an end, although a few lingering showers are possible through Saturday," the NHC said.

What's left of Helene "will drift slowly southeast and eventually eastward along the Kentucky-Tennessee border through the weekend."

In Thomas, Ga., a city around 117 miles east of Atlanta, officials said that a 27-year-old mother and her twin boys, who were a month old, died when a tree crashed through their mobile home.

All three of them were in bed together when they were killed after Helene churned through the state, McDuffie County Coroner Paul Johnson said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

As of Saturday morning, at least 44 people have been reported dead from Helene. Most of those deaths were reported in Georgia and the Carolinas.

The good news is that Helene's winds have diminished enough that the storm is no longer classified as a hurricane or even a tropical storm.

The bad news is that post-tropical cyclone Helene could continue to cause flooding in some areas through Sunday. That's because the storm is forecast to linger over much of Tennessee and Kentucky. Western portions of those two states could see an additional 2 to 4 inches of rain before the weekend is done. That comes after an extraordinary 24-hour period in which Helene left her mark on the region. Here's a rundown of the storm's impact:

• More than 40 people died due to the storm.

• Helene dropped up to two feet of rain in portions of North Carolina and South Carolina, and set a record for the worst flood in North Carolina's recorded history, according to North Carolina state climatologist Katie Dello.

• The storm caused damage estimated by Moody's between $20 billion and $34 billion.

• A record number of Americans found themselves under a flash flood emergency issued by the National Weather Service.

• More than 50 patients and staff at Unicoi County Hospital in Tennessee had to be rescued from a rooftop after flood waters cut off their means of escape.

• More than 4.8 million customers lost power because of the storm.

Moody's Analytics released an initial estimate of the damage caused by Helene after it ravaged several states over the past 24 hours, saying that the combined total of property damage and lost wages was likely to total between $20 billion and $34 billion.

Of course, Helene is still causing serious problems in multiple states, which could cause those estimates to rise.

Helene has dumped rain on a part of the country that had recently endured extreme precipitation, an unfortunate one-two punch that has made flooding that much worse. Here are some of the totals that have come just from Helene:

• 25.07 inches in Hendersonville, N.C.

• 24.01 inches Ridgecrest, N.C.

• 23.77 inches at Mount Mitchell State Park, N.C.

• 22.98 inches at Sunfish Mountain, S.C.

• 21.07 inches at Slicking Mountain, S.C

• 19.50 inches in Clemson, S.C.

• 19.39 inches in Banner Elk, N.C.

• 17.70 inches at Grandfather Mountain, N.C.

• 16.61 inches in Salem, S.C.

• 14.68 inches in Tallulah Falls, Ga.

• 13.56 inches in Martinez, Ga.

• 11.13 inches at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta airport, Ga.

• 7.35 inches in Columbia, S.C.

• 5.62 inches in Charlotte, N.C.

A sobering data point on what is facing homeowners impacted by Helene's fury over the past 24 hours is that the vast majority do not have flood insurance.

"Roughly 4% of Americans have flood insurance, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with the majority of those policies issued under the government’s National Flood Insurance Program," Bloomberg reported. That number is even lower in inland parts of the country like those experiencing flash flood emergencies stemming from Helene's heavy rains.

Read more from Bloomberg.

The extreme rainfall that accompanied Helene's arrival in North Carolina has resulted in the state's worst flooding on record, according to North Carolina State Climatologist Kathie Dello.

"Today's flooding from #Helene is worse that the Great Flood of 1916, the flood of record in Western North Carolina," she wrote in a message posted to X on Friday.

Despite earlier reports that the Walters Dam in Waterville, N.C., had experienced a "catastrophic failure" Friday afternoon as heavy rains from Helene pounded the area, officials with the state's Emergency Management Agency said hours later that the dam had not given way.

Evacuations continue to be underway in neighboring Newport, Tenn, whose downtown remains under several feet of water.

A record number of Americans now find themselves under flash flood emergencies, the National Weather Service said, many of which extend into Friday evening.

That designation is the highest level of threat, representing what are considered catastrophic flooding levels, that the NWS reports in nationwide warnings. The spate of warnings currently posted span multiple states, including Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia.

Hit hard by heavy rain and winds as Helene passed through the state, conditions in North Carolina have begun looking a bit better as evening approaches.

"Conditions continue to improve across central NC with just a few lingering showers/storms moving across the northern Piedmont over the next few hours," the National Weather Service said in a post to X. "Gusty winds will relax into the evening hours. Creeks, streams, and rivers will run high and fast over the next few days."

As of 4:30 p.m. local time, however, 884,556 customers were also still without power, according to Poweroutage.us.

More than 50 patients and staff at Unicoi County Hospital in Tennessee were trapped on the roof earlier Friday morning due to intense flooding caused by Helene. Several patients were transferred to other nearby hospitals in the morning before the flooding became too bad.

A local Tennessee news outlet reported at 4 p.m. ET that "nearly two dozen" people had been rescued and shared footage from Virginia State Police. Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty later confirmed on X that "everyone has been rescued safely from the roof."

All roads accessing the hospital are blocked off during the flooding.

In an afternoon press conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said officials told him "areas that were hit in Idalia and Debby" experienced more damage from Helene than the two other hurricanes combined.

"I think you're going see buildings that survived those two storms didn't make this storm," he said.

Hurricane Idalia hit Florida's Big Bend in August 2023 with storm surge water levels reaching 7 to 12 feet high along the coast — the highest recorded in the area since 1993, the National Weather Service reported. Idalia resulted in 12 fatalities.

Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida in early August 2024, causing a significant storm surge along Florida's Gulf Coast. At least eight people were reported dead as a result of the storm.

Since Hurricane Helene made landfall in northwestern Florida on Thursday night, the effects of the major storm have spread across multiple states.

On Friday afternoon, severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings were still being posted in several different states.

High wind warnings also extended to Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for Asheville, N.C., early Friday, and photos posted to social media in the hours since show extensive flooding there.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation in Asheville posted an image of a flooded roadway underneath the interstate with several flooded-out cars.

"Don't go out today. It's not safe," the department said in a post on X.

Earlier, the NCDOT said all roads in Western North Carolina "should be considered closed."

The Walters Dam in Waterville, N.C., suffered a "catastrophic failure" on Friday — and officials in neighboring Tennessee have warned people to evacuate immediately.

Cocke County Mayor Rob Mathis ordered all of downtown Newport, Tenn., to evacuate. The 180-foot-tall dam impounds the Pigeon River, which runs through Cocke County, Tenn.

The river reached over 20 feet as of 1 p.m. ET, the highest the river has reached since 2004. It's risen 10 feet within the last six hours, with experts estimating it will hit 22 feet by Friday night, a local news outlet reported.

An hour ago, Mark Nagi, the communications officer for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, shared images of the Pigeon River flooding the interstate.

At least 17 deaths in South Carolina have been attributed to Helene's impacts, according to coroners in Greenville, Aiken, Spartanburg and Anderson counties.

Gov. Henry McMaster said Friday that at least two of those killed included two firefighters in Saluda County.

"We believe there will be more but they have not been confirmed," McMaster said. "We ask that you keep all of those families and friends in your prayers.”

Officials in Rutherford County, N.C., issued an updated statement on the Lake Lure Dam, which they had earlier warned was in danger of imminent failure.

"Water is cresting the Dam and flowing around the side walls. Structural supports have been compromised but the Dam wall is currently holding," the Rutherford County Emergency Management said in a Facebook post. "Evacuations have occurred from the Dam to Island Creek Road. Evacuation sirens are sounding downstream of the Dam. Emergency personnel are working with the structural engineers and are going house to house to ensure all citizens have been evacuated. Evacuees are being transported temporarily to Ingles in Lake Lure."

The deaths of at least 30 people in four states have been attributed to Hurricane Helene, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

Damage from the storm, which made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, has stretched hundreds of miles to the north, and officials warned on Friday that the death toll was likely to rise.

According to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks power outages across the United States, more than 4.6 million customers in 10 states were without power just after 2 p.m. ET as a result of Helene.

• South Carolina: 1,265,187

• Georgia: 959,735

• North Carolina: 913,504

• Florida: 838,301

• Virginia: 227,145

• Kentucky: 211,584

• Tennessee: 112,037

• West Virginia: 73,348

• Ohio: 62,025

• Indiana: 11,727

According to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center, Helene has been downgraded to a tropical depression, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as it slowly moves through the southern Appalachians.

It is currently located about 125 miles south-southeast of Louisville, Ky., moving north-northwest at 28 mph.

"Helene is still producing historic and catastrophic flooding over portions of the southeast," the NHC said in its update. "A slowdown in forward speed is expected, and the depression is forecast to stall over the Tennessee Valley tonight and through the weekend."

The storm is expected to produce additional rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches, with total accumulations of 6 to 12 inches and isolated totals of around 20 inches in some areas.

During a briefing Friday morning, Gov. Roy Cooper said there had been two Helene-related deaths in the state and that he expected more to come.

"The priority right now is saving lives," he said. "With the rain that they already had been experiencing before Helene's arrival, this is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina."

Western North Carolina appears to have been hit the hardest, with life-threatening flash flooding, numerous landslides and power outages throughout the region.

Updated reports from state officials have attributed the deaths of at least 20 people to Helene's impacts. Those include the following:

• Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed that two people died in Florida — both from falling trees.

• Georgia: Gov. Brian Kemp said that at least 11 people had died in his state, including a first responder. Earlier Friday, a sheriff in Wheeler County said two of those people died in an apparent tornado.

• South Carolina: At least six people are reported dead in the western part of the state, where nearly every resident in the region is still without power.

• North Carolina: Gov. Roy Cooper said at least two deaths in the state were linked to Helene, including one caused by a car accident on a flooded road and another death from a tree falling on a house. A Connecticut National Guard unit was deployed to North Carolina earlier Friday morning.

The National Hurricane Center on Friday said preliminary storm surge modeling of Hurricane Helene indicates that areas within Florida's Big Bend region — near Keaton Beach, Steinhatchee and Horseshoe Beach — saw water levels reach more than 15 feet above ground level.

Meteorologists are calling it a "storm surge event" — described as when water generated by a storm like Helene surpasses the predicted water level increase. "Storm surge is caused primarily by the strong winds in a hurricane or a tropical storm," according to the National Weather Service.

The National Weather Service has called for a mandatory evacuation for all residents near Lake Lure Dam in Rutherford County, N.C. The area is about two hours west of Charlotte.

Officials say that while water has been periodically drained from the dam this week, there has been too much rainfall to keep up.

The Lake Lure Dam was deemed an "engineering marvel" by experts and evaulated to be in "fair condition" according to a 2019 article. The dam is 120-feet tall with a 95-mile drainage area.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said that at least 11 people have died in Georgia from Helene. A first responder was among those killed from the storm.

Previously, the sheriff in Wheeler County said two people died in an apparent tornado.

Kemp also broke down some numbers to emphasize the devastation Helene has caused throughout the state:

• 1M residents without power

• 1,300 traffic signals without power

• 1,100 in shelters

• 152 road closures, two interstate closures

• 115 buildings in Valdosta with damage and multiple people trapped inside

Georgia is expected to receive federal assistance after Biden approved emergency declaration requests from the governors.

Residents are encouraged to continue sheltering as the National Hurricane Center declared Helene as a "dangerous and life-threatening situation."

President Biden was briefed on Helene's impact this morning by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who will travel to Florida to survey the damage and meet with officials.

Biden approved emergency declaration requests from the governors of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Over 1,500 FEMA personnel will be sent down to the affected regions.

At least seven deaths have been linked to Helene, according to the Associated Press.

• Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed that one person died on a Tampa highway after they were hit by a falling sign, and another person died in Dixie County after a tree fell onto a home.

• Georgia: Two people died in an apparent tornado, the Wheeler County sheriff said.

• South Carolina: One death was reported in Anderson County after a tree fell onto a home.

• North Carolina: Gov. Roy Cooper said one person died in a car accident on a flooded road, and another person was killed after a tree fell on a house.

Evacuations are still being issued across the Carolinas, and local officials are warning residents to get to higher ground in high-impact regions, especially ones experiencing storm surges.

Michael Bobbitt, a resident of Cedar Key, Fla., who stayed behind during Helene, told the New York Times, "Cedar Key as we know it is completely gone."

“The post office is destroyed,” he said of the city in Florida's northwestern Big Bend region, which was also hit by Hurricane Idalia in 2023. “Several restaurants are destroyed. The Jiffy Food Store is destroyed. Vehicles are smashed in and turned upside down. Everything is impassable. It looks like a nuclear bomb went off.”

Helene made landfall along Florida's northwestern Big Bend coast late Thursday night and by Friday morning was already making its way farther north, passing Atlanta.

As Helene heads north through Georgia, its impacts are also being felt in parts of the Carolinas as well.

Helene is expected to turn northwest, hitting the Tennessee Valley and parts of Kentucky and Indiana, Friday afternoon and early Saturday. Helene is expected to stall over the Tennessee Valley tonight and through the rest of the weekend, the National Hurricane Center reported.

As of an 11 a.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center, Helene, is "producing historic and catastrophic flooding over portions of the southeast and southern Appalachians."

Flash flood emergencies are in effect for Atlanta and much of upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina.

Helene is expected to continue moving north and potentially stall over the Tennessee Valley tonight and through the weekend.

Flash flood emergency warnings have been issued for several areas throughout Tennessee, including Johnson City, Elizabethton and Jonesborough, until 1 p.m. ET.

For some areas, the National Weather Service calls the situation "extremely dangerous and life-threatening."

"Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order," the warning says. "This is a particularly dangerous situation, seek higher ground now."

Helene became the fifth hurricane to hit the land between Florida's Big Bend and the eastern Panhandle in the last eight years. The hurricane made landfall in the area late Thursday night.

USA Today reported earlier this week that residents living in the 200-mile coast between Panama City and Cedar Key are exhausted from having to pack up and prepare their homes and businesses for the worst.

"Everybody I talk to feels that way," one longtime Florida resident told the outlet. "We're weary, we're just storm-weary. You're doing the same thing over and over and over."

Read more from USA Today.

A flash flood emergency was issued for Carter and Unicoi counties in Tennessee until noon, with some evacuations happening in the Roane Mountain and Rain Village areas. Residents are encouraged to move to higher ground.

As of 9:30 a.m. ET, PowerOutage.us reports that more than 4 million people are without power through the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia and Virginia.

Here's a state breakdown of those without power according to the PowerOutage.us tracker:

South Carolina: 1,391,621

Florida: 1,127,650

Georgia: 1,079,409

North Carolina: 692,705

Virginia: 57,299

Flash flood emergencies have been issued in several counties across North Carolina and South Carolina, with the storm causing widespread road closures and landslide activity. Those in flash flood areas should get to higher ground and not travel unless fleeing floodwaters.

At a press briefing from the Florida's emergency operations center in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis thanked first responders for carrying out rescues in what he called a "historic" storm surge.

DeSantis said that power restorations are underway for the more than 1 million customers without power in the state.

The governor reminded people with generators not to operate them inside their homes and those using chainsaws for debris removal to exercise caution.

We're now getting some of the first images of the damage caused by Helene along Florida's coast and in Georgia.

More than 100 people and 50 pets were rescued from flooding in Citrus County, Fla., overnight, the local sheriff's office said.

In Crystal River, Fla., which is in Citrus County, the floodwaters were 10 feet deep in some areas, according to NBC affiliate WFLA-TV in Tampa.

The U.S. Coast Guard came to the rescue of a man and his dog on Thursday after the sailor's boat started taking on water off the coast near Fort Myers, Fla.

The man launched a distress call from around 25 miles offshore. "A successful rescue attempt was made, and the unidentified sailor and his dog were saved and brought back to land," authorities said.

The storm has passed Florida, but forecasters are warning there is the potential of more "life-threatening" storm surge from Helene along portions of Florida's Big Bend and west coast through Friday afternoon.

According to the National Hurricane Center, some areas of the coast could see five to 10 feet of storm surge.