HURRICANE HELENE KILLS 220 PEOPLE

HURRICANE HELENE (PHOTO CREDIT TO ATLANTIC OCEANOGRAPHIC & METEROLOGICAL LABORATORY)

According to the National Weather Service, Hurricane Helene developed in the northwest Caribbean Sea on Monday, September 23, 2024, as Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine, before moving northward into the eastern Gulf of Mexico and strengthening into a Category 4 hurricane. Helene then made landfall in the Florida Big Bend on Thursday, September 26, 2024, before continuing northward and weakening across Georgia, northwest South Carolina, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and Kentucky. Helene brought devastating wind damage and catastrophic flash flooding to these areas before merging with an upper-level low centered over the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys. The former hurricane continued to linger across the region for several days before finally ejecting off to the northeast on Monday, September 30.

More than 220 people have been killed by this storm, leaving hundreds of others still unaccounted for in the destruction left behind.