ropical Storm Helene brought life-threatening flooding to the Carolinas on Friday after causing widespread destruction as a major hurricane moving through Florida and Georgia overnight, killing at least 20 people, swamping neighborhoods and leaving more than 4 million homes and businesses without power.
Helene hit Florida's Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday at 11:10 p.m. ET (0310 GMT on Friday) and left a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.
Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states, including in Atlanta, where an apartment complex had to be evacuated due to flooding.
Helene came ashore in Florida with 140 mph (225 kph) winds, weakening to a tropical storm as it moved into Georgia early on Friday. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of near 45 mph (97 kph) as of 11 a.m. and was forecast to stall over the Tennessee Valley through the weekend.
Life-threatening storm surges, winds and heavy rains continued, the NHC said. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for several counties in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina on Friday morning.
"This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!" the service said.
In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam just before noon to immediately evacuate to higher ground, saying "Dam failure imminent."
