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A firefighter lost his life during Tropical Storm Helene.
Vernon Leon Davis, a part-time assistant fire chief in Blackshear, was killed on Sept. 27 when a tree fell on his vehicle during Tropical Storm Helene, First Coast News reported.
Blackshear Police Chief Chris Wright said Davis had just been clearing up downed trees and power lines before he was killed.
Davis had served as a firefighter for over 30 years.
At least 20 people are dead across multiple states and millions of people are without power after Hurricane Helene made landfall over Florida’s Big Bend on Thursday, Sept. 26.
Helene was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall around 11:10 p.m. local time near Perry, Fla., and has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.
In just a matter of hours, Helene delivered damaging wind gusts as well as “catastrophic, life-threatening, [and] record-breaking” flooding in many areas, especially the higher terrains of the southeastern Appalachians, where “numerous significant landslides” are also expected through Friday, Sept. 27.
As of the morning of Sept. 27, more than a million people were without power in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, respectively, according to PowerOutage.us.
