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By Matthew Impelli
Life & Trends Reporter
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A woman in North Carolina died this week after driving on a highway that was previously damaged by Hurricane Helene, authorities said.
Images of Interstate 40, where several lanes were washed out by Tropical Storm Helene near the Tennessee state line, captured widespread attention in the storm's aftermath, as numerous road closures left the region largely cut off.
Emergency crews from Tennessee and North Carolina responded to an incident Saturday night on eastbound I-40, where a vehicle reportedly plunged off the collapsed roadway and down an embankment, according to a news release from the Junaluska Community Volunteer Fire Department.
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Rescue crews rappelled roughly 100 feet down a steep embankment to reach a white vehicle lying on its side, according to the fire department. Photos from the scene show a responder carefully approaching the crumpled car at the base of the rubble-strewn slope. The driver, who was alone in the vehicle, was freed and transported to a hospital.
The driver, Patricia Mahoney, 63, of Southern Pines, North Carolina, died later that night, according to Sergeant Brandon Miller of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, which is investigating the crash. Mahoney reportedly entered the highway near the 7-mile marker, traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes, and went off the road around the 4-mile marker, where the highway ends. An autopsy has been scheduled.
It remains unclear why Mahoney bypassed the barricade, Miller said.
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Hurricane Helene
The highway has been shut down since late September when Hurricane Helene's floodwaters swept away four extensive sections of the eastbound lanes along the Pigeon River. However, the North Carolina Department of Transportation expects to reopen a single lane in each direction by the start of the new year.
As Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida on September 26 as a Category 4 hurricane, it brought destruction and death across the U.S. Southeast.
The storm claimed over 230 lives, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. since Katrina in 2005.
A new video released this month by NASA revealed huge atmospheric ripples caused by the hurricane as it made landfall, known as atmospheric gravity waves, detected by instruments aboard the International Space Station.
These waves were spied by NASA's Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) as they oscillated some 55 miles above the ground. The video shows the waves extending northwest of Florida, with the ripples in the atmosphere revealed by the artificially colored red, yellow, and blue bands.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.
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