Hurricane Helene is one of the most expansive and damaging hurricanes on record for the Southeast, due to its rare size, rapid intensification and rainfall.
The big picture: As of Saturday morning, at least 52 people across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia had died as a result of the massive storm, AP reports. About 3.7 million customers were without power in states including Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, according to poweroutage.us.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang contends that AI's benefits for the power grid and society ultimately will offset its massive energy suck.
Why it matters: AI's rise is fueling fears in the power sector and the climate community about grid reliability and meeting greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
Hurricane Helene began the day Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane, and quickly transformed into one of the largest, most powerful Gulf storms on record, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph at landfall.
Why it matters: Rapidly intensifying hurricanes can catch residents off guard and unable to flee a suddenly stronger storm as it bears down on them.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region as a Category 4 storm late Thursday before moving into Georgia with "catastrophic winds" as a still-dangerous high-end Category 2 hurricane early Friday.
The big picture: The deadly hurricane weakened to a Category 1 storm by 2am ET, but "life-threatening storm surge," winds and heavy rains continued amid multiple water rescues across Florida.
