Chicago Red Cross volunteer describes destruction in Florida from Hurricane Helene
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS) -- Hurricane Helene has taken the lives of more than 130 people in six states—and hundreds more are missing.
In parts of Western North Carolina, more than 2 feet of rain fell. Electricity will not be restored for days in the city of Asheville—and help has been slow to arrive.
Parts of Florida, where Helene made landfall last week, have also been devastated. A Chicago area volunteer for the American Red Cross, Al Lopez, has been assisting in two towns in Taylor County in the Big Bend region of Florida—Perry and Keaton Beach.
"Perry wasn't too bad—a lot of downed trees and some roofs taken off. It's when we got to Keaton Beach when we saw all the devastation. We made a really sharp turn to get into the town, and first thing I saw was a boat on the side of the road—just kind of strange, needless to say—and that's where we started to see the devastation," Lopez said. "It's one of these communities where the houses are on the sticks—and we saw a lot of sticks coming out of the ground, but no houses on top of them."
Taylor County, Florida Sheriff Wayne Padgett said 90% of homes in Keaton Beach were "gone" after the storm, CBS affiliate WCTV, Tallahassee, reported.
"Some houses weren't really touched. Others were totally gone. Others were basically one and a half, and there was just debris all over the place on both sides of the road. Basically, what you see in the pictures from hurricanes, that's what we pretty much saw—just a lot of destroyed homes, several boats along the side of the roadway," Lopez said. "That's pretty much it—just a lot of devastation in the town of Keaton Beach. I'd probably say it's Keaton Beach is probably gone by now."
Lopez said his deployment to Florida in the wake of Helene was his with the Red Cross—though he has deployed with the U.S. Armed Forces several times before. His team's responsibility is feeding those in need.
"Just a lot of grateful people to give them some food, and whatever else they need," he said.
President Biden says he will visit North Carolina on Wednesday, and promises the region whatever it needs to recover.