N.L. artist in U.S. finds herself in Hurricane Helene's path of destruction

Actor and writer Amy House is currently in Newberry, South Carolina, where she and other artists are supposed to be filming a television show, but plans have been disrupted by the devastation brought by Hurricane Helene.

Amy House says trees felled, power failed as storm swirled around her

Elizabeth Whitten · CBC News · Posted: Sep 30, 2024 8:32 AM EDT | Last Updated: September 30

Woman with short brown hair smiling, she has a necklace and is wearing a pink sweater. She is sitting with her back against a mirror. — Amy House is currently in Newberry, South Carolina, filming a television show, but she says plans were disrupted by Hurricane Helene. (Stephen Miller/CBC)

A Newfoundland and Labrador artist down south to film a television show said she instead found herself hunkered down in the path of a hurricane over the weekend.

Hurricane Helene has torn through the southeastern United States, killing dozens, and has now been downgraded to a tropical storm.

"It's been a pretty harrowing experience. We're all safe. Everybody's fine," actor and writer Amy House told CBC News by phone.

"[We] were quite shocked at first when we realized we weren't going to get to do our shows."

She and other artists, including folk musical group Quote the Raven, are in Newberry, South Carolina, to film Towns in Tunes, which features towns in both South Carolina and Newfoundland and Labrador.

"The power went out 6 a.m. yesterday morning. The storm ripped through all night," said House.

They were supposed to be out of Hurricane Helene's path, but it unexpectedly veered toward South Carolina, she added.

"We thought for sure we were going to be fine, we'd be able to get the show off, et cetera. But as it happened, there's a lot of damage in the town."

A brick building that has its upper story wall torn down, there are mounds of bricks on the street below. — Amy House says not far from the hotel she’s staying at, a brick building’s upper wall was ripped down. (Submitted by Don Godish)

The damage includes felled trees and closed roads, said House, who said she hasn't seen much flooding. However, a block from the hotel she's in, a brick building had an upper wall torn down and bricks now litter the street.

"There's a lot of damage and a lot of power outages," she said.

At least 44 dead across 5 states, as Hurricane Helene rips through southeastern U.S.

Residents evacuate as Helene barrels toward Florida as a major hurricane

House said her hurricane experience in South Carolina is different from what she's seen in Newfoundland.

"They talked about 60 mile an hour winds and how devastating that's going to be," she said.

She noticed trees in the area tend to have shallow root systems, which can negatively impact how well the tree can stand up to strong winds.

A tree is laying on the ground, across a street, with roots exposed. — Amy House says Hurricane Helene felled trees around Newberry, which is exposing how short their root networks are. (Submitted by Don Godish)

The pounding rain woke her up, but she said even the rain was different from what she's used to.

"It wasn't sideways rain, let's put it that way. It was still coming down straight, not like home. And it's also warm, which is another phenomenon that we don't experience," said House.

The show must go on

The hurricane has disrupted her filming plans, including two planned shoots, but House said there are plans in the works to carry on with Towns in Tunes production.

"The producers have a plan in place already to come back the second week of April and pick up where we left off and even expand what we were doing. So it's all going to be fine," she said.

However, there were two live events scheduled for the weekend that have been cancelled. One was Saturday night's Towns in Tunes live musical performance isn't going ahead, which House was supposed to host.

She said that event would have raised money for Newberry's opera house.

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