Hurricane Helene aftermath: 64 dead as emergency workers rush to North Carolina

globalnews.ca:

Authorities rushed to airlift supplies and restore communications and roads in flooded Asheville, North Carolina, on Sunday as residents along the storm-battered Florida coast gathered for church services amid the wreckage of Hurricane Helene.

Massive rains from the powerful Helene left people stranded, without shelter and awaiting rescue around the U.S. Southeast. Cleanup continued Sunday from a tempest that killed at least 64 people, caused widespread destruction across the southeastern states and knocked out power to several million people.

As the sun rose over Florida’s Big Bend on the Sunday after Hurricane Helene battered the region, many houses of worship were still dealing with power outages, damaged roofs and hurricane debris — and the knowledge that many of their congregants are shouldering another hit from a devastating storm.

More than 1,610 kilometres away in Texas, Jessica Drye Turner begged for someone to rescue her family members stranded on their rooftop in Asheville, N.C., surrounded by rising flood waters. “They are watching 18 wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post on Friday.

But in a follow-up message, which became widely circulated on social media on Saturday, Turner said help had not arrived in time to save her parents, both in their 70s, and her six-year-old nephew. The roof had collapsed and the three drowned.

“I cannot convey in words the sorrow, heartbreak and devastation my sisters and I are going through nor imagine the pain before us,” she wrote.

Helene blew ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 225 kph.

From there, it quickly moved through Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it “looks like a