TikTok was forced to issue safety warnings to content-obsessed users chasing a viral moment after they filmed themselves partying and dancing in Hurricane Helene as it hit Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Despite wind gusts of up to 140 mph that hit Florida’s Big Bend region and left a trail of destruction that spread beyond Georgia, some eager TikTokers decided the natural disaster was the perfect backdrop for your clips.
In one, three young Florida residents were seen dancing on a beach as sand sped by, while another woman shot a beer on her balcony while being hit by the hurricane.
As some went viral, TikTok included some videos with an alert, warning that “engaging in this activity could result in you or others getting hurt.”
The warnings were an understatement for those who ignored evacuation orders, as the death toll from Hurricane Helene reached at least nineteen by Friday morning and officials feared the number would rise over the weekend.
So far, at least 23 people have died, including at least eleven deaths in Florida, eleven in Georgia and one in North Carolina.
These deaths included a sign that fell on a driver on a Tampa freeway, two people who drowned off the coast of Pinellas County and a four-year-old girl who lost her life in a weather-related accident in North Carolina.
Despite mass evacuation orders, TikTokers showed how they passed the time in creative ways, often fueled by alcohol.
One woman was shown drinking a bottle of Titos vodka on her balcony, although she admitted in the caption: “We should have evacuated like everyone else…”
Some also mocked the weather reporters, who parodied covering the storm in bathrobes and with wine bottles as microphones.
But while some were just joking about it, stunning footage from Friday morning showed a Fox Weather reporter interrupting his own live broadcast to rescue a woman stranded in her car.
Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen sprang into action while presenting a live report north of Atlanta, Georgia, where Helene passed through Friday morning after making landfall in Florida hours earlier.
Van Dillen began by noting that the stranded woman “drove straight into the floodwaters,” and could be heard screaming for help as she told the studio she had dialed 911 and was waiting for firefighters.
As the screaming continued during his broadcast, Van Dillen interrupted his live shot to go in and help the woman, and Fox anchors in the studio called him a “hero” as he carried her to safety in waters up to his neck. chest.
Van Dillen returned to the air after saving the woman and said she went into the flood waters because she lost faith that 911 firefighters would rescue her in time.
“It’s hard not to, because 911 gets a lot of calls,” he said while returning to Fox and Friends. “It’s going to take a long time to get here, but the firefighters finally arrived.”
“(The water was) up to my chest and there was a little bit of current, but she was also a short lady, probably about five feet tall,” he explained.
He concluded: “I think the panic factor was kicking in. And when you start to panic and you’re in the water and it starts to get cold, things can really go downhill quickly.” “So I just… couldn’t wait.”
After the death toll reached 23, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the death toll may continue to rise as rescuers work through the rubble left behind.
The danger of the storm was highlighted when Floridians who decided not to evacuate were asked to write their names on their bodies so they could be identified if they died in the storm.
“Please write your name, date of birth and important information on your arm or leg with a PERMANENT MARKER so you can be identified and your family notified,” the sheriff’s office in largely rural Taylor County warned those They decided not to evacuate in a Facebook post. .
Helene made its first landfall with maximum sustained wind gusts of up to 140 mph, prompting weather warnings well beyond the Florida coast into northern Georgia and western North Carolina.
As of Friday morning, more than 3 million homes and businesses were without power, including 1.2 million in South Carolina, 1.1 million in Florida, 1 million in Georgia and 400,000 in North Carolina, according to the site poweroutage.us tracking.
The governors of those states, as well as Alabama and Virginia, declared emergencies.
“When Floridians wake up tomorrow morning, we will find a state where there has most likely been additional loss of life and there will certainly be loss of property,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference on Thursday. evening.
Early Friday, Helene was downgraded to a Category 1 storm as it passed through Georgia, after leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.