Helene death toll over 40; devastating flooding in Tennessee, Carolinas

Emergency crews spent Friday rushing to rescue people trapped in flooded homes after Helene roared ashore as a powerful Category 4 hurricane in Florida, generating a massive storm surge and knocking out power to millions of customers. 

The storm has been blamed for at least 40 deaths in four states, including at least 17 people in South Carolina. State officials say dozens are still trapped in homes damaged by Helene.

Helene has been downgraded to a tropical depression and was located about 125 miles southeast of Louisville as of Friday evening. The storm is expected to stall over the Tennessee Valley through the weekend.

More than 4 million homes and businesses are still without power across the eastern U.S., according to the tracking site poweroutage.us .

Two firefighters were killed in South Carolina when they were struck by a falling tree.

In western North Carolina, Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said they received more than 3,300 calls over an eight-hour period Friday, and more than 130 swift-water rescues have been conducted. It took crews more than four hours to reach several homes that were hit by a mudslide.

In eastern Tennessee, a “catastrophic failure” of Waterville Dam spurred Cocke County Mayor Rob Mathis to hand down evacuation orders for all of downtown Newport, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. 

A mudslide and record floodwaters from the remnants washed out a section of an interstate highway at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line. Photos and video posted on social media showed at least one lane of I-40 had collapsed above the swollen Pigeon River.

As Helene spun off dozens of severe thunderstorms, four people were critically injured after a tornado touched down in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

In Valdosta, Georgia, 115 buildings were heavily damaged with multiple people trapped inside.

Insurance data provider A.M. Best on Friday estimated that insurers will pay $5 billion or more to cover losses from Hurricane Helene.

That’s not the total amount of loss, some of which is uninsured and some of which may be repaid with federal aid. Instead, it’s the amount that insurance companies are on the hook for.