Hurricane Helene claims 39 lives in South Carolina, the highest reported hurricane death toll

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS/AP) – Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene hit Florida as a Category 4 storm, South Carolina officials are working to pick up the pieces and restore power to the state.

“We know it's tough, but I want to tell you that the team we have in South Carolina, that South Carolina spirit is something very rare,” McMaster said.

“And in this struggle and in this process that we are going through now, that spirit has been demonstrated,” he said.

Thirty-nine people have died from Hurricane Helene in South Carolina, and more than 180 people have died from the storm in six states. It is now the second deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland in the last 50 years.

To put that number in perspective, Hurricane Hugo, a Category 5 storm that made landfall in September 1989, claimed 35 lives in South Carolina.

More than 1.1 million customers still had no power in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene struck far inland. A little less than half a million customers were without power in the Palmetto State, with most outages reported in the Upstate.

Based on historical data from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, South Carolina faces the most severe hurricane impacts of any U.S. state.

Over the past 50 years, at least one tropical cyclone has struck South Carolina on average about seven out of every eight years, according to SCDNR.

However, such a high death toll is rare.

According to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Andrea was the last hurricane or tropical storm to cause fatalities in South Carolina in 2007. Hurricane Gracie killed ten people in South Carolina and Georgia in 1959.

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