Storm Helene leaves path of destruction across southeastern US

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00Collapsed buildings, submerged homes and a landscape in tatters.

00:05This is one of the first places Hurricane Helene roared ashore, bringing a wall of water

00:09to this low-lying town in the Big Bend and leaving people bereft.

00:15This is the worst. Ain't nothing even come close to it. It floated my house.

00:21I ain't got money to rebuild no more. I don't know what I'm going to do.

00:27I ain't got a house to worry about though.

00:29For some communities in southeastern Florida, this is their third hurricane in 13 months.

00:35But according to Governor Ron DeSantis, this time it was significantly worse,

00:40causing more damage than the last two storms combined.

00:43And this was only the beginning.

00:46The Category 4 storm weakened to a tropical storm as it moved up through Georgia,

00:50but that didn't spare the damage.

00:53Atlanta was quickly inundated with widespread flooding

00:56and some residents had to be evacuated by boat. Others were simply gobsmacked.

01:01I wasn't even expecting to be nothing like this.

01:05I thought it may be like wind damage or anything, like trees falling, things of that nature.

01:11But I never expected this. This is beyond my dreams.

01:15Helene then spiralled up into Tennessee.

01:17More than 50 patients were stranded on the roof of this hospital,

01:21waiting hours for rescue workers to arrive.

01:25And then on to North and South Carolina, where the floodwaters were raging.

01:29Scores of people lost their lives across the five states,

01:32and search and rescue operations were continuing,

01:35with the possibility the death toll could climb higher as they combed through the rubble.

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