Powerful storm surge washes away homes and memories

Hurricane Helene wrecked homes and boats in Keaton Beach, Florida with violent storm surge and extreme wind.

Transcript

00:00The powerful force of the storm surge ripped apart homes and swept away boats

00:05here in Keaton Beach. Many families are coming back now in disbelief to see all

00:10of this damage and the memories that have been swept away into the Gulf of

00:14Mexico. And when you're talking about a category four storm, man, that's some

00:18stuff. It takes a good structure to withstand that. The view from above

00:22shows why Accuweather expert meteorologists warned that this storm

00:25surge from Hurricane Helene was unsurvivable. Many homes were shredded.

00:30Others left badly damaged with water getting inside sturdy raised homes built

00:35on piers. Shade Murphy has a family vacation home here. His grandparents

00:40retired to Keaton Beach and they live here year round in a camper. He's

00:44grateful his family and friends listened to the evacuation orders and

00:48got to safety before Helene slammed this part of the big bend 15 20 ft

00:53storm surge. And I mean that when we kind of heard that in the 140 mile an

00:58hour winds, we just knew that I mean it was gonna be bad. It's tough to see,

01:02but you know, the community is gonna bounce back and by the grace of God,

01:05everybody that we know is okay. So that's that's what that's what really

01:09matters at the end of the day. It could take days or even weeks to get the

01:12power back on in some of the hardest hit areas and the barrier islands. But

01:16the recovery process and rebuilding that will take months, if not years

01:21after the most powerful hurricane on record to hit the big bend of florida

01:26reporting in Keaton Beach for Accuweather. I'm Bill Waddell