Saturday, September 28

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has risen to at least 44, and it is expected to jump even more in the coming days.

Helene made landfall as a dangerous Category 4 storm on Thursday, wreaking havoc across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. To read more about Helene's landfall, click here. 44 people were killed after the hurricane's 140 mph winds blew down trees, power lines, and billboards, and cars were completely submerged by the 20+ feet of storm surge that hit the Florida coast, and homes were inundated after it dropped over 10 inches of rain in parts of Florida and Georgia. In fact, the city of Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, received a staggering total of 11.12 inches of rain in two days, shattering the city's record for the most rain in 48 hours. The records, dating back to 1878, state that this precipitation was the worst in the city's history, with the next-worst being 9.59 inches in 1886.

The storm also did a lot of damage in more mountainous areas like western North Carolina, where part of the Appalachian Mountain range is located. The heavy rain pooled into temporary lakes at the lowest point in an area, and towns were also struck by mudslides as the extreme precipitation loosened the already-saturated ground.

Many roads in urban areas are under multiple feet of water, and other areas have been completely flooded by rain or rivers bursting their banks. Several hospitals were also forced to close in southern Georgia, and numerous roads were shut down because of toppled trees, fallen power lines, and other debris. Tornadoes also struck some small towns, including one in southern Georgia that killed two people in a mobile home, and another tornado in North Carolina injured four people. Millions of people are still out of power across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia.

However, rescue and power crews are trying their best to save citizens, drain standing water, and restore power as quickly as possible. Thousands of rescues have already taken place, and emergency services have received hundreds of phone calls in just a few hours in some places. It is a dangerous job, though. Two firefighters were killed in South Carolina and another firefighter was killed in Georgia after trees fell on their fire trucks.

The storm is currently a weak post-tropical cyclone over Kentucky, and it is dousing the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys with the last of its rain. The precipitation has ended for hard-hit states like Florida and Georgia, though, and the tough cleanup will now begin to recover from this devastating storm. Unfortunately, events like Helene will only become more common as the burning of fossil fuels exacerbates climate change, creating stronger, more frequent hurricanes.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Jellyfish are 95% water and have no brain, blood, bones, or eyes (except for the dangerous box jellyfish, which has 24 eyes).

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): The greatest gift that human beings possess is curiosity.

(Kenneth Clark)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Lucid (adj)- If something written, spoken, or otherwise communicated is described as lucid, it is very clear and easy to understand. A person described as lucid is able to think clearly. Lucid is also used to describe things that are luminous, or that are visually transparent.

In a Sentence: The film conveyed a lucid message that was hard to misinterpret.