Lazaro Aleman
reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com
The remnants of Hurricane Helene – which struck the Big Bend region as a major storm last Thursday night – were still wreaking havoc across the U.S. Southeast on Sunday and into Monday, leaving a reported 600-mile swath of death and destruction in its aftermath.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reports that Helene had an enormous wind field, with hurricane-force winds extending outward 60 miles from its center, and tropical storm-force winds reaching out as far out as 345 miles from the center. As of Sunday, the storm, which had been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, was still stalled over the Tennessee Valley, causing major flooding, property damage and power outages. All told, the storm caused massive outages across multiple states, resulted in millions if not billions of dollars of property damage and loss, and was responsible for the deaths of at least 95 people as of early Monday, Sept. 30, according to news reports. The death toll as of Monday morning included 36 in North Carolina, 25 in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, four in Tennessee and two in Virginia. And many more people were still missing or unaccounted for as of Sunday, Sept. 29. Hundreds of roads also remained closed on Sunday, especially in the Carolinas, both hampering the delivery of badly-needed supplies and stranding motorists. And more than two million customers remained without electric power, according to PowerOutage.us.
Meanwhile in Florida, where the hurricane struck as a Category 4 storm near midnight Thursday, Sept. 26, recovery and relief efforts were underway, as the utter devastation caused by the storm daily became more evident, with Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee Counties being part of the hardest-hit areas. Small coastal communities such as St. Marks and Steinhatchee were especially hard hit by the storm surge, according to news reports.
According to the NHC, Helene slammed into the Big Bend near the mouth of Aucilla River and about 10 miles southwest of the small town of Perry at 11:10 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, packing winds of 140 miles per hour (mph) just prior to landfall.
Classified as one of the largest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene made landfall in an area that had already been impacted by two other hurricanes in the last 13 months. The first was Idalia, a Category 3 storm that hit near Keaton Beach in August 2023, and the second, Debby, a Category 1 storm that made landfall near Steinhatchee in early August of this year.
By Friday morning, the fast-moving Helene was already in Georgia and had weakened into a Category 1 storm, according to the NHC. Even so, the storm continued to wreck a wide path of destruction as it swept across the Southeast, spinning tornadoes, causing massive flooding and mudslides in the Carolinas and elsewhere, some which devastated mountain communities and left countless people homeless or stranded, with storm conditions reaching as far north as Maryland and Virginia and causing widespread power outages everywhere.
Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) reported nearly all its customers in Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee Counties suffered power outages as a result of countless downed trees and limbs. Additionally, nine of the cooperative's 13 substations were without power due to a loss of transmission services provided by Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light. As of Monday morning, Sept. 30, however, SVEC reported that power had been restored to 59 percent of the co-op's customers.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the work our employees are doing,” said SVEC CEO Mike McWaters. “The results we are seeing are a testament to their commitment to their neighbors here in the community. Everyone here at the cooperative is also very grateful for the assistance we are receiving from our industry colleagues.”
As of Monday morning, SVEC reported the only transmission delivery point not reenergized was the Blair substation in Hamilton County. Furthermore, the co-op estimated power to be restored to 95 percent of its customers by the following times:
⁃ Lafayette County (11:59 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 30)
⁃ Columbia County (11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1)
⁃ Hamilton County (11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 2)
⁃ Suwannee County (11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3)
SVEC reported 2,157 documented reports of damage to its distribution system, including 458 broken poles.
Furthermore, President Joe Biden approved a Major Disaster Declaration for 17 Florida counties on Sunday, Sept. 29, as a result of Hurricane Helene, including Lafayette County. Thus, residents are eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) individual assistance. Contact Lafayette County Emergency Management at (386) 294-1950 to learn how to apply for assistance.
Anyone who needs help recovering from Hurricane Helene is urged to call (833) GET-HOPE for free assistance and resources such as food, household goods or debris removal.
Meanwhile, as of Monday, there were four other disturbances or active hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and a potential one was forming in the western Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico. Meteorologists early on predicted that this would be an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season, and there are still two more months to go before the season officially ends on Nov. 30.