Hurricane Helene Wind Damage Could Hit States 600 Miles Away From Florida

The storm made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region on Thursday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane with catastrophic 140 mile per hour winds and torrential rain.

Downgraded late on Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, Helene continued to produce heavy rains across several states, sparking life-threatening flooding that threatened to create dam failures that could inundate entire towns.

Hurricane Helene caused at least 52 deaths and billions of dollars of destruction across a wide swath of the southeastern U.S. as it raced through, and more than three million customers went into the weekend without any power and for some a continued threat of floods.

Historic flooding continued over parts of the southern Appalachians on Saturday, as first responders worked to reach stranded communities in trying conditions while local authorities began to assess the scale of the damage and displacement.