The hurricane Helene weakened on Friday after hitting the southeast coast of the United States, but remains “extremely dangerous”, authorities warned, as it surges inland, leaving roads and roads in its wake. flooded houses.
• Also read: “We have to leave”: in Florida, residents flee the approaching hurricane “Helene”
• Also read: Storm “Helene” heading towards Florida becomes a hurricane
The storm crossed Florida into neighboring Georgia, the US National Hurricane Center said, urging residents to stay safe from “catastrophic winds”, storm surges and heavy rain.
“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the Center said in its latest bulletin.
“The hurricane Helene is now a Category 2 hurricane,” the NWS (National Weather Service) in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, indicated in X, with the American Hurricane Center (NHC) reporting maximum winds of 175 km/h.
Helene made landfall Thursday evening in Florida as a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale of five.
AFP
According to the tracking site PowerOutage.us, about 1,131,100 homes and businesses were without power in Florida and more than 90,000 in Georgia as the storm moved north.
More than 55 million Americans are affected by a weather alert with the passage of the hurricane Helenewith tornado warnings in northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
The NHC also warned of heavy rain in some areas and potentially life-threatening flooding, as well as numerous landslides in the southern Appalachians.
The National Weather Service said the region could be extremely hard hit, with flooding not seen in more than a century.
“Insurmountable”
AFP
“This will be one of the most significant weather events to occur in the western parts of the region in modern times,” he warns.
“This is a multi-state event with the potential for significant impacts from Florida to Tennessee,” Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters.
Florida residents had been warned of an “unsurvivable” storm surge, with images broadcast in local media showing flooded homes and intense rain.
Helene is already dumping intense rains and the risk of marine submersion particularly worries the authorities. The rise in water levels could reach six meters in places on the coasts, the height of a one-story building.
This is a “scenario that is impossible to survive” and which will be accompanied by “destructive” waves that could sweep away homes and move cars, warned Mike Brennan, director of the NHC.
AFP
US President Joe Biden “urged” residents to heed the “calls to evacuate” issued by the authorities.
“I’m staying here”
On the coast near Tallahassee, many fled, having protected the windows of their homes with wooden boards.
But some decided to stay there out of solidarity, like John Luper who stays with his mother and brother. “They won’t leave,” he sighs, regretting their choice. “I’m stuck with them.”
Authorities in Taylor County, Florida, have asked residents who failed to comply with requests to leave to write their names on their bodies using permanent markers to help identify them if they were to be killed.
In Crawfordville, a small town located about thirty kilometers south of Tallahassee, Patrick Riickert also decided to ignore the alerts.
“I’m staying here. I’m going to retreat,” the fifty-year-old told AFP, who has his grandchildren with him. “I trust in my faith and that God will protect me.”
AFP
Three other states under threat
Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina will also feel the effects of the hurricane.
In Florida, a state of emergency has been imposed across almost the entire state. Some 3,500 National Guard soldiers have been mobilized and an additional 2,000 are available if needed, according to the governor.
Several airports, including Tallahassee and Tampa, are closed.
Federal funds have been released, with personnel ready to assist in possible search and rescue operations and restoration of electricity.
The particularity ofHelene is to be a particularly widespread hurricane. Its size makes it “one of the largest hurricanes over the Gulf of Mexico this century,” noted expert Michael Lowry.
While several hurricanes have already hit the United States this year, including Beryl And Debbythese were less powerful thanHelene when it hits the ground.
