More than 60 dead from storm Helene as rescue, cleanup efforts grow

 
WASHINGTON (AFP)

Rescuers struggled on Saturday with washed-out bridges and debris-strewn roads in the search for survivors of devastating Storm Helene, which killed at least 63 people across five states and caused massive power outages.

Helene slammed into Florida Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and surged north, gradually weakening but leaving in its wake toppled trees, downed power lines, and mudslide-wrecked homes.

Federal emergencies were declared in six states -- Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee -- with more than 800 personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) deployed.

Now classified as a "post-tropical cyclone", the remnants of the storm are expected to continue inundating the Ohio Valley and central Appalachians through Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

In affected communities across the eastern coast and midwest, storm victims and volunteers toting trash bags, mops, and hammers tried to repair what they could and clean up the rest.

At least 24 people died in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, 10 in North Carolina and one in Virginia, according to local authorities and media tallied by AFP.

The National Weather Service said conditions would "continue to improve today following the catastrophic flooding over the past two days."

But it warned of possible "long-duration power outages."

More than 2.6 million customers were still without electricity across 10 states from Florida in the southeast to Indiana in the midwest as of early Sunday morning, according to tracker poweroutage.us.