By STEPHEN SMITH, KATE PAYNE and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press

PERRY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Helene left an enormous path of destruction across Florida and the southeastern U.S. on Friday, killing at least 40 people in four states, snapping towering oaks like twigs and tearing apart homes as rescue crews launched desperate missions to save people from floodwaters.

The Category 4 hurricane knocked out power to some hospitals in southern Georgia, and Gov. Brian Kemp said authorities had to use chainsaws to clear debris and open up roads. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) when it made landfall late Thursday in a sparsely populated region in Florida’s rural Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways where the state’s panhandle and peninsula meet.

Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.

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• The wreckage extended hundreds of miles northward to northeast Tennessee, where a “ dangerous rescue situation ” by helicopter unfolded after 54 people were moved to the roof of the Unicoi County Hospital as water rapidly flooded the facility. Everyone was rescued and no one was left at the hospital as of late Friday afternoon, Ballad Health said.

In North Carolina, a lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing” overtopped a dam and surrounding neighborhoods were evacuated, although there were no immediate concerns it would fail. People also were evacuated from Newport, Tennessee, a city of about 7,000 people, amid concerns about a dam near there, although officials later said the structure had not failed.

Tornadoes hit some areas, including one in Nash County, North Carolina, that critically injured four people.

Atlanta received a record 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain in 48 hours, the most the city has seen in a two-day period since record keeping began in 1878, Georgia’s Office of the State Climatologist said on the social platform X. The previous mark of 9.59 inches (24.36 cm) was set in 1886. Some neighborhoods were so badly flooded that only car roofs could be seen poking above the water.

Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.

When Laurie Lilliott pulled onto her street in Dekle Beach, Florida, after Helene plowed through, she couldn’t see the roofline of her home beyond the palm trees. It had collapsed, torn apart by the pounding storm surge, one corner still precariously propped up by a piling.

“It took me a long time to br

Jozsef Papp, Joe Kovac Jr., Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(TNS)

At least 15 people died in Georgia when the massive storm Helene barreled across the Southeast, state officials said Friday.

The death toll across four states — Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas — hit 40 by late Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. Storm damage, including downed trees and power lines, made reaching victims treacherous in some areas.

• Two SC Volunteer Firefighters Killed as Hurricane Helene Rolled Across the State
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At an afternoon news conference, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp confirmed that a first responder was among those killed in the storm.

“One of our finest lost his life trying to save others,” Kemp said.

Vernon “Leon” Davis, the Blackshear Fire Department’s assistant chief, died when a tree fell on his city truck shortly before 1:30 a.m. Friday, Pierce County Coroner William Wilson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Blackshear is located about 10 miles northeast of Waycross.

Davis was responding to storm calls when he was killed, Wilson said. The veteran firefighter was passionate about his work serving the community.

“That’s what he loved doing,” Wilson said.

Downed trees were the cause of multiple deaths, including six in the Augusta area.

Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen reported three deaths involving fallen trees. Bowen said it’s been difficult to respond to scenes due to the damage and trees on the roads.

“It’s hard to get to these places because trees are down. It’s just a chaotic mess,” he said.

In Washington County, a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl died after a tree fell on their home and trapped them inside the burning house, Augusta television station WRDW reported. Another person died in Grovetown in Columbia County after a tree fell on a mobile home, the station reported.

A mother and two infants were killed in McDuffie County, News Channel 6 in Augusta reported.

Some 80 miles southwest, a 58-year-old Dublin man was killed early Friday when massive pine trees crashed through the roof of his house. A second person, a Kentucky woman, 48, died when the 18-wheeler she and her husband were traveling in was struck by a wind-blown tree along U.S. 441 about 20 miles south of Dublin.

Laurens County Coroner Richard Stanley III identified the woman who was killed as Angela Edwards of Eddyville, Kentucky. The coroner said the truck Edwards and her husband were in hit a tree in the highway. Before they could move that tree, another toppled onto Edwards.

The Dublin resident who died in the storm, Charles Douglas Brownlee, lived in a house that at least four giant pines keeled over on in a particularly hard-hit section of town near the city’s high school football stadium.

— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.

©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distribut

Jordan Lawrence
The State
(TNS)

Two volunteer firefighters in rural South Carolina were killed Friday morning, responding to a call as Hurricane Helene rolled through the area.

The firefighters worked for the volunteer-staffed fire service in Saluda County, which sits on the other side of Lexington County from Columbia and has about 19,000 residents. The firefighters haven’t been identified, and no explanation has been given about how they were killed.

Gov. Henry McMaster confirmed the firefighters’ deaths during a Friday afternoon press conference, saying that they are two of four deaths confirmed in the state.

Authorities in the county posted multiple times overnight and into the morning cautioning residents about conditions in the area.

The county’s EMS paused service temporarily a little before 9 a.m.

“Please be patient,” the department posted to Facebook. “There are trees down on the roads which is blocking ambulance access to callers. We will get to you as soon as we possibly can.”

The Saluda County Sheriff’s Office encouraged residents to stay indoors.

“Everyone please stay safe and stay home if possible,” the department posted. “There are trees and power lines down county wide. Please only use 911 for emergencies. Keep those working in these conditions in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you to those working EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement and also those working on utilities. Stay safe!”

©2024 The State. Visit thestate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Steve Lord
Beacon-News (Aurora, Ill.)
(TNS)

An Aurora City Council committee on Wednesday recommended plans for two new fire stations to be built on the far East Side of the city.

Fire Station 13 would be on the southeast corner of Bilter Road and Nan Street, just east of Farnsworth Avenue, on land the city has owned since 2015. Fire Station 9 would be on land at 7S300 Eola Road, just south of Liberty Street.

Both stations would be about the same size, and would include a ladder truck, an engine and an ambulance.

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Both stations are being built to improve call response times in the northeast part of town.

Michael Kaufman, assistant chief for support services for the Aurora Fire Department, said response time to the area to be served by Fire Station 13 – which includes Chicago Premium Outlets mall and all the development along Farnsworth Avenue and Bilter Road – is “significant” because it comes from either a station near Fox Valley Mall, or downtown.

“This would cut response time in half,” he said of the planned new station.

Response time is key to the locations for the new stations. A study done several years ago pinpointed the best locations for stations. According to fire officials, the goal in moving and constructing new stations is to get response times below six minutes for regular fire responses and four minutes for emergency medical responses.

While the city has had a fire station in mind for the Bilter Road and Nan Street location since 2015, residents along Nan Street said they were concerned about what the station there might bring.

Michael and Diane Mutersbaugh, who have lived on Nan Street for about 40 years, said they were concerned about fire trucks on Nan being too much.

“It’s the wrong move to put that kind of activity there, with our children,” Diane Mutersbaugh said.

Michael Mutersbaugh said the station would be better located on land the city has purchased further east on Bilter Road.

“The city is dug in like a tick on a hound on this,” he said. “Why can’t the city have a new fire station the way they want it just down the street? It don’t make any sense.”

But city officials said the 2.5-acre Bilter and Nan site would be perfect for the about 19,000-square-foot station. When leaving for an emergency, all the fire vehicles would exit onto Bilter Road. They would only use Nan Street when returning to the station, said Ed Sieben, the city’s Planning and Zoning administrator.

He also said the station would be 80 feet from Nan, with a lot of landscaping, including a six-foot-high solid wood fence there.

He said that five of eight city fire stations are located in residential neighborhoods, and there have been “no problems.”

Ald. William Donnell, 4th Ward, said Fire Station 7 is two blocks from his house, and there is little disruption because of sirens or traffic.

“The neighbors think it’s been very positive,” he said.

Ald. Michael Saville, 6th Ward, said the city has “long recognized the need for a fire station in that area.”

He did ask if the city had considered some of the land it has purchased along Bilter Road to the east.

Alex Alexandrou, the city’s chief management officer, said the other properties the city owns are “slated for other types of development.”

The Bilter and Nan site is in Aurora Township, so the city would hav