Experts say Helene and other storms dumped enough rain on the Southeast last week to fill 60 million Olympic swimming pools.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As Hurricane Helene cleanup continues, we’re now learning just how much rain fell in the Southeast last week.
Helene’s rainfall totals are stunning experts with an unheard of amount of water. Let’s connect the dots.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says more than 40 trillion gallons of rain fell in the past week, including the preceding rainfall event in the North Carolina mountains. That’s enough to fill 60 million Olympic swimming pools.
With at least 215 killed, Helene is already the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005, and dozens or possibly hundreds of people are still unaccounted for. Roughly half the victims were in North Carolina, while dozens more were killed in South Carolina and Georgia.
In Buncombe County alone, 72 people had been confirmed dead as of Thursday evening, Miller said. Buncombe includes the tourist hub of Asheville, the region’s most populous city. Still, the sheriff holds out hope that many of the missing are alive.
The unprecedented rainfall is credited to the storms that happened before Helene even made landfall in Florida. Just days later, Helene dumped rain on an already saturated area, flooding rivers, lakes and streams across the region.
Experts say if that amount of rain fell in just North Carolina, the whole state would be under three-and-a-half feet of water. Climate change is pushing storms to get even worse, too. Experts say for every degree hotter, the air holds nearly 4% more moisture.
With the impacts of Helene still being felt across the Carolinas, it’s still unclear just how deadly the rainfall will be.
