Since Sept. 24, Hurricane Helene has caused over 150 deaths, and forced thousands of Americans to evacuate. Helene’s three days of pouring and flooding caused power and gas outages, polluted water systems, damaged infrastructure and created problems that endangered the lives of residents in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Most of these states had gotten rain from being on the storm’s path for several days prior, so flooding was more likely in these areas because the ground simply couldn’t absorb any more by the time the actual hurricane hit. 

In some areas, when combining the heavy prior rainfall with the hurricane storms, the new rainfall ended up being much more significant and heavy. The flooding and breaking down of homes as a result of this strong rainfall were main causes of the countless deaths from this hurricane.. 

MCPS sophomore Apolline Weaver has an aunt who was living in Florida when Hurricane Helene hit. “She was living very near the Gulf of Mexico in Crystal Beach. She found a place to stay further inland about thirty minutes away,” Weaver said. Both her original home and her temporary evacuation home were barely affected by Hurricane Helene or the later Hurricane Milton. “[The hurricane] hit a bit further south than expected which made a huge difference and likely saved a lot worse impact on where she was staying.” 

Weaver’s aunt left well ahead of the storms, avoiding  many problems, like resource shortage related issues. “Later, she really evacuated the area. She got stuck in traffic leaving town and had to drive for twelve hours when it should’ve taken six,” Weaver said. With so many people evacuating from the affected areas in the South, the rising traffic on the roads and at gas stations made it hard to find fuel. In response to the rising demand, Georgia lowered gas prices, providing some relief to those on the road trying to escape the storm.

Another MCPS student, Caroline Roe, has family in North Carolina that ended up in a worse spot in the path of Hurricane Helene. “A dam burst in the area and flooded some of their county,” Roe said. “This made the power go out for a week and a half, with no food, no electricity, and the water system got screwed up.” 

Unlike Weaver’s aunt, this family looked to stay where they were, not wanting to part with their house. Because they decided to remain where they were, in an indirect hit by Hurricane Helene, their available resources suddenly became much more limited and difficult to use. “All they had was contaminated water, but luckily they were able to get a water pump and use their generator for it because just an order for boiling water there was two weeks long,” Roe said.

Written by Kiera Tow

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons