Crews Still Picking Up from Helene as Hurricane Milton Nears

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Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Some two weeks after the storm made landfall, crews from the U.S. Geological Survey are deployed across Tennessee and North Carolina, in response to landfalls triggered by the remnants of Hurricane Helene as another major storm approaches.

Crews across the southeast U.S. are still cleaning up from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall September 26 as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida's Big Bend area, with maximum sustained winds of about 140 miles per hour. An estimated 4 million people were without power in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas in the wake of the storm.

Weather forecasters had warned of severe erosion in parts of the Appalachian Mountain range. Parts of North Carolina received as much as 32 inches of rain from the remnants of Helene.

By Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was responding to emergency declarations in Tennessee and North Carolina due to landslides. The USGS has identified nearly 300 landslides of note, and most of those are located along the eastern edge of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.

"We're actively assisting local authorities, both on the ground and from afar, as they work to protect lives and vital infrastructure," said Holly Weyers, the regional director for the USGS.

At least 225 people were killed because of the storm, according to The Associated Press, and state authorities said Monday that many people were still missing. Power outages are still prevalent across the region, multiple advisories are in place, and many roads are inaccessible due to flooding.

All that comes as Florida's western coast prepares for Hurricane Milton, already a Category 5 hurricane parked over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

"There is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds for ports of the west coast of the Florida peninsula beginning Tuesday night or early Wednesday," the National Hurricane Center said in a forecast on Monday morning.

Milton's path looks to avoid much of the offshore production centers in the U.S. territorial waters of the Gulf of Mexico, though Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California) was an early mover by shutting in production from its Blind Faith platform, with a design capacity of 65,000 barrels per day (BBL/d). Helene at its peak had knocked off about 500,000 BBL/d worth of oil production.

Milton, however, could impact port traffic along Florida's western shores. Traffic in and out of the Port of Tampa Bay was closed in response to Helene. With no refineries of its own, the Port of Tampa Bay handles about 17 million tons of refined petroleum products and natural gas each year for Florida.

As of Monday's forecast, Tampa Bay can expect as much as 12 feet of storm surge. Florida could see as much as 15 inches of rain from Milton.

With crews still picking up storm debris from Helene, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by Sunday had declared a state of emergency for 51 of the 67 counties in his state in preparation for Hurricane Milton.

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