Over 60 dead as storm wreaks havoc in US

CEDAR KEY, Florida — Rescuers struggled on Saturday with washed-out bridges and debris-strewn roads in the search for survivors of devastating Storm Helene, which killed at least 63 people across five states and caused massive power outages.

"I've never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now," said Janalea England of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the state's rural Big Bend, as she turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn't get insurance on their homes.

Helene slammed into Florida late on Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and surged north, gradually weakening but leaving in its wake toppled trees, downed power lines and mudslide-wrecked homes.

Federal emergencies were declared in six states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee — with more than 800 personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency deployed.

Now classified as a "post-tropical cyclone", the remnants of the storm were expected to continue inundating the Ohio Valley and Central Appalachians through Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

In affected communities across the East Coast and Midwest, storm victims and volunteers toting trash bags, mops and hammers tried to repair what they could and clean up the rest.

"There's only a couple of businesses open. They have limited supply. So I'm just worried about families that have kids and stuff like that, getting somewhere to stay and have something to eat," said Steven Mauro, a resident of Valdosta, Georgia.

The National Weather Service said conditions would "continue to improve today following the catastrophic flooding over the past two days."

But it warned of possible "long-duration power outages."

More than 2.6 million customers were still without electricity across 10 states from Florida in the southeast to Indiana in the Midwest as of early Sunday morning, according to tracker Poweroutage.us.

The North Atlantic hurricane season runs from the beginning of June to the end of November, with most of the severe storms historically forming around the end of August or the beginning of September.

Forecasters are carefully watching two more named storm systems expected soon: Joyce and Hurricane Isaac.

Isaac is expected to weaken into a powerful post-tropical cyclone by Sunday night or early Monday, while Joyce is expected to be a tropical storm for a couple more days, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Agencies Via Xinhua