By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
Before the debris settled from the damage of Hurricane Helene, Floridians are being urged to evacuate in preparation for Hurricane Milton, which is expected to bring even more destruction than its predecessor.
Helene made landfall on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm, and communities were urged to evacuate this week as Milton made landfall on Wednesday evening.
The six states that have faced casualties due to Helene are Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. As of Saturday, the death toll is over 227people, making Helene the deadliest since Hurricane Katrina, according to the Associated Press.
Helene was strong enough to sweep away homes, destroy roads and flood communities. Its destructive winds were able to cause the most damage, leaving millions without power.
Gastonia, N.C., junior Allie Guy remembers calling her family on Sept. 27 and figuring out they had lost power. Guy’s sister couldn’t go to school due to outages and flooding, and local colleges had to shut down because the loss of power and cell service.
“My family is very lucky that they weren’t too deeply impacted,” Guy said. “Unfortunately, we know a lot of people that were impacted and a lot of towns. It’s been really sad to read about and really kind of hard.“
Guy saw pictures on social media of whole cities wiped out. She said it was hard to wrap her brain around the idea of places she grew up visiting completely devastated by the flooding.
Because of the lack of cell service, companies in N.C. are combining efforts to give people access to cellular data, Guy said.
“It’s been really amazing to see just the outpouring and the unity of the communities around North Carolina and honestly even from other states,” Guy said. “[There are] so many people donating supplies and working to get supplies — as much supplies as they can up to the mountains.”
Spartanburg, S.C., senior Kaleb Patterson said his local communities faced power outages and severe weather as well. He said Helene inflicted a lot of damage that will take time to rebuild from.
“The communities that I interacted with, they’re actually wiped off the map. They’re no longer existing, unfortunately, and that was something that took a big toll on [me and my family],” Patterson said. “I think for my family, the effects of the hurricane showed a true testament to what my family is, which is a group of people that come together and help one another in times of distress.”
Less than two weeks after Helene, southeastern states — mainly Florida — prepare to face Milton, once a Category 5 and now a Category 3. According to the Weather Channel, Florida will be affected by Milton “with destructive storm surge, devastating wind damage, potentially catastrophic flooding rainfall and several tornadoes.”
Patterson said he doesn’t think that Milton will affect S.C. as much, but if anything were to happen, it would be “catastrophic” for the state as it is still recovering from Helene.
Guy said there was panic in N.C. communities at first about Milton, but that local meteorologists are certain it won’t affect them as badly as Helene did. According to Guy, going through Helene helped North Carolinian communities be more sympathetic to states facing Milton. She is reminded that even after the coverage of the hurricanes end, communities are still impacted by them.
“I’ve seen a lot of posts about [N.C.] coming together to pray for the members of Florida and offer support in any capacity, which is beautiful to watch. While we’re dealing with our own stuff, we’re still being compassionate and trying to help others,” Guy said.
