Some hurricanes are remembered for their wind damage or rainfall. Others for their coastal flooding. Hurricane Helene was a stew of all of that and more. Its near-record-breaking size, storm surge, winds and rainfall together turned Helene into an almost unimaginable disaster that stretched more than 500 miles inland from the Florida coast.
At least 230 people died across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia as Helene flooded towns , destroyed roads and bridges and swept away homes .
In Florida, Helene’s storm surge caused damage along hundreds of miles of coast. As residents there began the clean up and recovery, another dangerous hurricane was headed their way. Some of the same areas hit hard by Helene on Sept. 26 — including Tampa Bay and Cedar Key — could see flooding again from Hurricane Milton , expected to make landfall as early as Wednesday.
The majority of Helene’s victims were far from the coast, caught off guard as the storm unleashed more than 20 inches of rain in the mountains that quickly turned streams and rivers into raging torrents.