Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction from storm surge and incredible winds along the Gulf Coast of Florida. FOX Weather’s Robert Ray surveys the damage and speaks with three people who are now dealing with the aftermath.
KEATON BEACH, Fla. — Residents of Florida’s Keaton Beach, whose coastal town bore the brunt of Hurricane Helene’s eyewall Friday night, are now picking up the pieces of the devastation left behind by nearly 100 mph winds and storm surge that reached as high as 15-20 feet.
Wreckage is strewn across the area; a cauldron of destroyed homes, boats, cars, and whatever else the Gulf of Mexico could scrape and destroy while Helene’s winds did the rest.
MILLIONS IN THE DARK, FLOOD EMERGENCIES PERSIST AS SOUTHEAST STRUGGLES IN WAKE OF HELENE’S WRATH
“Seen a lot of bad storms on this river and seen people recover from a lot,” Steven Hatchett told FOX Weather’s Robert Ray. “But I’ve never seen anything this magnitude – not even the (1993) Storm of the Century or any of the hurricanes.”
Hatchett said buildings that had been there his whole life are gone.
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Damage left behind in Keaton Beach, Florida on Sept. 28, 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (Robert Ray)
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Damage left behind in Keaton Beach, Florida on Sept. 28, 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (Robert Ray)
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Damage left behind in Keaton Beach, Florida on Sept. 28, 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (Robert Ray)
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Damage left behind in Keaton Beach, Florida on Sept. 28, 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (Robert Ray)
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Damage left behind in Keaton Beach, Florida on Sept. 28, 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (Robert Ray)
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Damage left behind in Keaton Beach, Florida on Sept. 28, 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (Robert Ray)
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Damage left behind in Keaton Beach, Florida on Sept. 28, 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (Robert Ray)
“Not just destroyed, but they’re gone,” he said. “A lot of the places that survived everything, they’re gone. So this, obviously, something happened here that we’ve never seen.”
Longtime resident Jarrod Hunt echoed sentiments that Helene was a once in a lifetime event.
“That’s the worst we’ve ever seen in our area, for sure,” he told FOX Weather. “I’ve lived here all my life. I know most of the people that live here and have forever. And this is definitely the worst that we’ve ever seen. Most of the houses down here — 60%, 75%, they’re gone. They’re just… gone.”
FOX Weather’s Mike Seidel is in Perry, Florida, where he says the amount of power flashes from Hurricane Helene is unlike anything he’s ever seen.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said so far, 11 people have died in Florida, including some who have drowned. But he marveled that so far, no deaths had been reported in Taylor County, home to Keaton Beach and other towns square in the path of Helene’s landfall.
Yet the damage left behind will take a massive toll.
“It’s heart-wrenching because so many people around here worked so hard to recover from past storms and to rebuild their livelihood and to see it totally swept away like that — It’s just very sad,” Hatchett said. “No way to describe it.”
But both Hunt and Hatchett were confident the residents would stick together to recover.
“These people are resilient. They don’t have a quit in their vocabulary,” Hatchett said. “Everybody around here will pull together and, and get to work.”