Hurricane Helene weather reports from college student go viral
Viral meteorologist tracks Helene's aftermath
Widespread devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene came to light Monday across the South, revealing a wasteland of splintered houses, crushed cargo containers and mud-covered highways in one of the worst storms in U.S. history. The death toll topped 130. LiveNOW from FOX host Josh Breslow spoke to viral meteorologist Ethan Clark on what he's seen so far.
An unexpected source became a trusted and go-to place for information during Hurricane Helene’s devastation in western North Carolina - a college student’s Facebook page.
Ethan Clark is the brains behind North Carolina’s Weather Authority, which exploded in popularity during the storm last week.
North Carolina’s Weather Authority is a weather page Clark started in 7th grade just for his friends and family.
Clark has a passion for weather and he’s known for sharing in-depth forecasts.
"I talk all about every county," he shared with FOX Television Stations. "I have lots of small towns included. And I've just been building my following and it's all pretty much just me, just trying to showcase the state of North Carolina and provide forecasts for everyone, not just the big cities."
Ethan Clark speaking with LiveNOW from FOX on Oct. 1, 2024.
On Sept. 25, he first shared a video to his followers that Helene was coming with a warning to not get caught off guard.
"We will get through this storm just like we have all the others and make preparations, especially across parts of the Mountains /Foothills for Flash Flooding and High winds," he posted, alongside a nearly 12-minute video that walked viewers through weather graphics and radar forecasts.
We now know just how severe Helene’s devastation was.
READ MORE: How a Florida hurricane led to historic floods in North Carolina’s mountain towns
Helene’s path through the Southeast left a trail of power outages so large the darkness was visible from space. Tens of trillions of gallons of rain fell and more than 200 people were killed, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, and search crews must trudge through knee-deep debris to learn whether residents are safe.
Western North Carolina was especially hard hit.
"As it approached North Carolina, we knew it was going to be bad because, looking at the models, we had a pre-event from a frontal battery that already dropped five to ten inches of rain on Thursday in western North Carolina. And we had 20 inches of rain, up to 30 in some spots, on Friday and that is just - no one can really handle that much rain in that sort of time. That's a recipe for catastrophic flooding," Clark told FOX Television Stations.
During the storm, he took the time to make posts county-by-county to help gather and disseminate real-time information to and from people in the area.
People would share information about power updates, road outages, missing family members and cell service.
Thousands of people interacted with his posts, with many also thanking him and wishing him safety during the storm as well.
"Unfortunately, many communities are completely wiped out. We haven't even seen some of the worst impacts. I'm getting some photos from some of the worst-hit areas, and it's really just devastating, unfortunately. And it's going to take a while," he shared.
"I think it will be one of those Fran, Floyd-type hurricanes that's continued to be talked about for generations."
Clark continues to share with his more than 571,000 followers restoration updates throughout the western North Carolina communities, as well as ongoing weather alerts in the area.
He’s keeping an eye as well on Tropical Storm Milton, formerly Tropical Depression 14, that’s heading towards the west coast of Florida next week.
READ MORE: Tropical Storm Milton forms in Gulf, eyes Florida ahead of rapidly intensifying into hurricane