ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Nearly six months after Helene ripped through Western North Carolina with catastrophic winds and torrential rains, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service has issued the National Hurricane Center’s final report from the storm.
On March 19, just eight days before the sixth-month anniversary of when Helene hit WNC, the report was released, detailing the strength of the winds and the rainfall totals throughout the state. The report also breaks down the number of storm-related deaths in each state, with North Carolina being the deadliest with 105.
Helene grew to a tropical storm on Sept. 25 and the next day became Hurricane Helene, making landfall 10 miles Southwest of Perry, Florida, in the early morning hours of Sept. 27 as a Category 4 hurricane. It then made its way up through the Southeast, wreaking havoc through the Appalachian Mountains, making it a storm no one will ever forget in WNC.
The report says that Helene brought life-threatening wind gusts much farther inland across the Southeastern United States than other hurricanes, due to its fast forward motion and large size.
The highest wind gust recorded was actually in Yancey County, North Carolina at Grandfather Mountain. Its highest gust was 92 knots, which is just over 105 mph. At Banner Elk in Watauga County, the second-highest gust in the state was reported to be 88 knots (101 mph), and the next-highest was in Haywood County at Frying Pan Mountain, which had a gust of 76 knots (87 mph).
As for rain, North Carolina had some of the highest totals since a storm had hit the area with heavy rain just before Helene hit. The highest total from Helene was in Busick, North Carolina, where 30.78 inches of rain was recorded from Sept. 25-28. A National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Program observer near Celo, North Carolina, measured 26.65 inches of rain. Both of those sites are located in Yancey County.
Farther South, a rainfall total of 29.98 inches was measured in Transylvania County. The highest total in Buncombe County as in Black Mountain, which had a total of 21.07 inches.
Some of the rivers that caused catastrophic flooding were the South Toe River near Celo (which broke the 1957 crest record by 8.7 feet), the French Broad River at Blantyre (which broke the 1901 crest record by 1.3 feet) and the Swannanoa River at Biltmore (which broke the 1901 crest record by 6.6 feet).
Reports from official state government sources as well as media reports indicate that Helene is responsible for at least 175 direct deaths, with 85 in North Carolina, the highest of any other state. North Carolina also had 20 reported indirect deaths, giving it a total of 105 deaths. South Carolina had the second-most with 50.
NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER TROPICAL CYCLONE HURRICANE HELENE REPORT