Hurricane Helene in numbers: Catastrophic destruction extends over 400 miles

After Helene made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region on Thursday evening as a Category 4 major hurricane, it caused catastrophic storm surge, wind damage and inland flooding across much of the South.

Here's a look at the storm's numbers as affected communities continue to get a fuller picture of the deadly destruction.

Category 4

Helene was the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in the Big Bend region, making landfall near Perry, Florida, as a Category 4 storm with winds of 140 mph.

400 miles

Helene left a wide swath of destruction across the Southeast – from Florida's Big Bend to Asheville, North Carolina, nearly 400 miles from where the storm made landfall.

Over 120 dead

At least 121 people were killed by Helene in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Thirty-five people have died in hard-hit Buncombe County, North Carolina, which includes Asheville, county officials said. Another 600 people remain missing in the county due to widespread power and cell phone outages, officials said.

At least 73 people were still missing in Unicoi County, Tennessee, on Sunday morning, according to local officials.

More than 30 inches of rain

Helene and a separate system dropped more than 30 inches of rain across North Carolina earlier this week, causing the largest local flooding in history.

Flooding in western North Carolina exceeded records set for more than a century. The French Broad River in Asheville peaked at 24.67 feet, breaking the previous record of 23.1 feet set in July 1916.

Elsewhere in Georgia, a historic 11 inches of rain fell due to the combination of Hurricane Helene and a storm earlier in the week.

15-foot storm surge

The storm surge was more than 15 feet above the ground in parts of Florida, including Keaton Beach and Steinhatchee, both in Taylor County, and Horseshoe Beach in Dixie County.

The Tampa Bay region was also hit by record storm surge: 7.2 feet were reported in Tampa East Bay – a record 4.56 feet set in 2023.

Over 20 tornadoes reported

Amid the storm, there were more than 20 reported tornadoes in five states – Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

In Rocky Mount, North Carolina, 15 people were injured – including four seriously – after a tornado ripped through the town on Friday, the National Weather Service said.

400 roads closed in one state

In North Carolina, extreme flooding has washed away homes and bridges. At one point, authorities closed 400 roads because they deemed them unsafe for traffic, state officials said.

As of Monday, travel in western North Carolina should only be possible for emergencies as hundreds of road issues related to Helene remain, officials said.

In Florida, emergency crews had to clear 4 to 5 feet of sand from roads in Helene's wake, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday, while updating that all state roads were expected to reopen by the end of the day.

4 million customers

More than 4 million customers lost power in the south on Friday as a result of the Helene disaster.

Nearly 2 million customers from Florida to Ohio were still without power Monday afternoon.

Thousands of rescues

Thousands of successful rescue operations have been reported in Florida, DeSantis said on Monday.

In North Carolina, more than 200 people were rescued from the floods in the middle of Helene, Governor Roy Cooper said on Saturday. According to officials, over 150 rescues were conducted in Buncombe County alone.

In Tennessee's Unicoi County, 54 patients and staff were rescued by helicopter on Friday after they became trapped on the roof of a hospital amid rapidly rising floodwaters.

ABC News' Melissa Griffin and Max Golembo contributed to this report.