Hurricane Helene Cleanup & Rescues Continue After Massive Rainfalls And Damaging Winds

Now that Hurricane Helene has done her damage in numerous states and along Florida’s gulf coast, it’s time for what will be a long drawn-out cleanup and recovery.

The massive category-4 storm roared in with the entire Big Bend area included in its path including Alachua County where KRMS and Viper News Anchor Bill Robbins resides.

Robbins says he was bracing for worst but hoping for the best and says, in the end fortunately for his area, they were spared the brunt of Helene.

“The rain bands started coming in early in the evening around 7:00-ish and they just get kept getting progressively more aggressive and by sometime around midnight, we heard the big transformer blow up and all houses on the street except ours…..and a couple of neighbors….lost power.”

Among the worst hit areas was Perry, in Taylor County, which was also hard hit by Hurricane Debby in early August.

While the eyes were all focused on Florida, it turns out the more severe damage would affect parts of Georgia, Tennessee & North and South Carolina, where floodwaters have decimated towns and cut off the city of Asheville, NC, as roads and train tracks were simply “washed away” in the raging flood waters.

According to a report on KRCG-TV, so far 13 Missouri Red Cross volunteers and 65 members of Missouri Task Force-1 were dispatched to help people in those communities.

Some of the Missouri rescue effort set up at an evacuation shelter at Florida A&M University, while others headed to Georgia and North Carolina.

All totaled, the Missouri deployment also consisted of two K-9 units and 100,000 pounds of equipment.

More than 100 people have died so far as a result of Helene, and it’s estimated that restoration of Power, Internet & Water across North Carolina alone could take months.