GALLERY: Helene’s Impact on Charlotte Neighborhoods – Charlotte Magazine

Helene, a Category 4 hurricane when it struck the Florida coast late Thursday night, was merely a tropical storm by the time the fast-moving system sideswiped Charlotte and veered northwest. There, in the western mountains, severe flooding of the kind not seen in decades threatened homes and lives.

Elizabeth comic book shop Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find was without power on Friday.

The effects in Charlotte weren’t as dreadful. Still, as of late Friday afternoon, about 95,000 Duke Energy customers in the Charlotte area were without power. As much as four inches of rain in Mecklenburg County, plus wind gusts as strong as 50 mph, blew down trees and power lines, causing blocked roads and broken windows. One person in northwest Charlotte was killed and a second suffered life-threatening injuries when a tree fell on a house in the 4200 block of Brookway Drive, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Above and below, photographer Logan Cyrus captures the storm’s impacts in neighborhoods like Elizabeth, Plaza Midwood, NoDa, and Commonwealth Park. As bad as Helene was in Charlotte, the storm reserved far worse for the mountains, where officials warned residents of “catastrophic” flooding that might rival the infamous 1916 flood that killed 80 in and around Asheville. Landslides caused interstates 40 and 26 to close, Buncombe County ordered the evacuation of parts of Black Mountain, and social media posts showed flooding on popular King Street in downtown Boone.