- Broken fingers could sideline Yankees' Rizzo as playoffs start
- Monaco celebrate centenary with late win to join PSG top of Ligue 1
- New Jersey gets final as FIFA unveil Club World Cup venues
- Rovanpera outpaces Evans in the fog for Chile lead
- Camara snatches late win as Monaco move level with PSG in Ligue 1
- Flick takes 'blame' as Osasuna halt Barca's perfect start
- UK lawmaker quits Labour Party over PM's 'hypocrisy'
- Osasuna dismantle Barca's perfect Liga start
- Dozens missing, 9 dead in migrant boat wreck off Spanish Canaries
- Death toll from Hurricane John hits eight in Mexico
- Israel kills Hezbollah chief in Beirut strike
- Kane limps off as frustrated Bayern held by Leverkusen
- Springboks wore Pumas down with 'slow poison', says Erasmus
- Storm Helene's toll rises as rescue and cleanup efforts gain pace
- Ukraine says 10 killed in Russian strikes on hospital
- Bayern boss Kompany hopeful Kane will bounce back for Villa clash
- Kane injured as Bayern and Leverkusen draw in Bundesliga
- US grabs 8-6 lead after Saturday four-balls at Presidents Cup
- Liverpool go top of Premier League after Man City held by Newcastle
- Salah sinks Wolves as Liverpool go top
- Revived Vlahovic shoots Juve top with double at fan-less Genoa
- Arteta happy with Arsenal's cool heads in late Leicester win
- SpaceX launches mission to return stranded astronauts
- Progress on high seas treaty, but change still far off
- Hundreds rally in France in defence of abortion rights
- Seven-try South Africa crush Argentina to become champions
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding as cleanup begins
- Russia's Lavrov warns Europe against 'suicidal escapade' in fiery speech
- Embattled Netanyahu buoyed by Hezbollah chief's killing: analysts
- Man City held without Rodri as Palmer's four-goal haul fires Chelsea
- Chelsea's Palmer hits four first-half goals to beat Brighton
- Hashem Safieddine: possible successor to Hezbollah chief Nasrallah
- Leipzig's young stars on song in big win over Augsburg
- Etzebeth becomes most-capped Springbok to thunderous applause
- Kopecky dedicates road race world title to deceased junior
- Martinez double at Udinese fires Inter level with Serie A leaders
- SpaceX set to launch mission to return stranded astronauts
- In Acapulco and across Mexico, violence poses huge test for new president
- China warns against 'expansion' of Ukraine war
- 'Insane': Olympic champ Zheng joins Sabalenka in Beijing 3rd round
- Man City feel Rodri absence in Newcastle draw
- Israel kills Hezbollah chief in Beirut air strike
- England quick Archer cautiously optimistic after injury woes
- Sinner 'very disappointed' as doping case reignites with WADA appeal
- Hezbollah chief killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Hezbollah: powerful Lebanese armed group with regional role
- 59 dead in Nepal as downpours trigger floods
- Madrid can cover Mbappe injury absence in derby: Ancelotti
- Sinner 'surprised' as doping case reignites with WADA appeal
- Church must learn from abuse victims, Pope says on Belgium trip
Storm Helene's toll rises as rescue and cleanup efforts gain pace
The death toll from the passage of powerful Storm Helene reached at least 53 on Saturday, authorities said, as responders, hampered by washed-out bridges and debris-strewn roads, searched house-by-house for survivors in devastated regions of several eastern US states.
At least 22 people died in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, two in North Carolina and one in Virginia, according to updated reports from local authorities tallied by AFP.
Helene slammed into Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and surged north, gradually weakening but leaving a path of rare devastation.
Repair crews were already at work Saturday, and the National Weather Service said conditions would "continue to improve today following the catastrophic flooding over the past two days."
But it warned of possible "long-duration power outages."
Nearly three million customers were still without electricity across 10 states from Florida in the southeast to Indiana and Ohio in the midwest as of mid-afternoon Saturday, according to tracker poweroutage.us.
- 'It breaks my heart' -
Helene originally slammed into Florida's northern Gulf shore with powerful winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour. Even as a weakened post-tropical cyclone, it has wreaked havoc.
Record levels of flooding had threatened to breach several dams, but Tennessee emergency officials said Saturday that the Nolichucky Dam -- which had been close to breaching -- was no longer in danger of giving way and people downriver could return home.
Massive flooding was reported in Asheville, a city in western North Carolina. Governor Ray Cooper called it "one of the worst storms in modern history" to hit his state.
Some residents in South Carolina -- a state that is no stranger to hurricanes -- said Helene was the worst storm to hit in 40 years.
There were reports of remote towns in the Carolina mountains without power or cell service, their roads washed away or buried by mudslides.
In Cedar Key, an island city of 700 people just off Florida's northwest coast, the full destructive force of the hurricane was on view.
Several pastel-colored wooden homes were destroyed, victims of record storm surges and ferocious winds.
"I've lived here my whole life, and it breaks my heart to see it. We've not really been able to catch a break," said Gabe Doty, a Cedar Key official, referring to two earlier hurricanes in the past year.
- 'Gut punch' -
In South Carolina the dead included two firefighters, officials said.
Georgia's 17 deaths included an emergency responder, according to state officials.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida said the damage from Helene exceeded that of hurricanes Idalia and Debby, which both hit the same region southeast of Tallahassee in the last 13 months.
"It's a real gut punch to those communities," DeSantis told Fox News.
On affluent Anna Maria Island, south of the Florida city of Tampa, nearly every ground-level home was flooded, and a coastal road was buried in several feet of sand, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.
And in the Tennessee town of Erwin, a dramatic rescue operation unfolded, as more than 50 patients and staff trapped on a hospital roof by surging floodwaters had to be rescued by helicopters.
Remnants of the weakened storm were dumping water Saturday over the lower midwest.
- 'Overwhelming' damage -
In a statement Saturday, President Joe Biden called Helene's devastation "overwhelming."
He said he was deploying additional response personnel, and he sent Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, to Florida on Saturday to survey damage. FEMA now has more than 800 people in the storm-hit states.
September has been an unusually wet month around the world, with scientists linking some extreme weather events to human-caused global warming.
F.Pavlenko--BTB