INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Authorities across a wide swath of the southeastern United States faced the daunting task on Saturday of cleaning up from Hurricane Helene,
one of the most powerful to hit the country, as the death toll continued to rise.At least 43 deaths were reported by late on Friday, and
officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states, Reuters reported.Helene, downgraded late on Friday to a
post-tropical cyclone, continued to produce heavy rains across several states, sparking life-threatening flooding that threatened to create
dam failures that could inundate entire towns.In Florida&s Pinellas County near Tampa, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he had never seen
destruction like that which Helene wrought
&I would just describe it, having spent the last few hours out there, as a war zone,& Gualtieri told a press conference.At least 3.5 million
customers remained without power across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully
restored.Scientists say climate change contributes to fueling stronger, more destructive hurricanes.Before moving north through Georgia and
into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida&s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night, packing 140 mph
It left behind 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 on Friday.More than 50 people were rescued from the roof of a hospital
in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 120 miles (200 km) northeast of Knoxville, state officials said, after floodwaters swamped the rural
community.Rising waters from the Nolichucky River prevented ambulances and emergency vehicles from evacuating patients and others there, the
Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency said on social media
Emergency crews in boats and helicopters were conducting rescues.Elsewhere in Tennessee, Rob Mathis, the mayor of Cocke County, ordered the
evacuation of downtown Newport because of a potential failure at the nearby Walters dam.In western North Carolina, Rutherford County
emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam that it might fail, although they said late on Friday that failure did not
appear imminent.In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced interstates 40 and 26 to close, the county said on X.The post US southeast
faces daunting task cleaning up from Helene; death toll rises first appeared on Ariana News.
