Tiny gulf island beloved by tourists is decimated by Hurricane Helene

A small gulf island that is a popular tourist attraction has been left decimated after Hurricane Helene slammed Florida. 

Cedar Key was blasted by the power of the Category 4 hurricane as it hit the small island, which sits less than 10 feet above sea level in Levy County.

Michael Bobbitt, 48, was one of those who decided to stay behind.

'We're feeling pretty gut-punched here in Cedar Key. When we were fighting this in the night, however bad we thought it would be, it's much worse in the light of day.

'Cedar Key as we know it is completely gone,' he told The New York Times.

'Entire houses have been picked up and moved away. We had to go through four feet of water to get to them. The post office is destroyed.'

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'Several restaurants are destroyed. The Jiffy Food Store is destroyed. Vehicles are smashed in and turned upside down. Everything is impassable. It looks like a nuclear bomb went off.'

The storm made landfall on Thursday and brought with it a storm surge that reportedly hit four feet on the small island in the Gulf of Mexico. 

As the residents that stayed on the island woke on Friday morning, they discovered the island had been stripped bare by the winds, with debris littering the streets.  

He added: 'All of those people that left are desperate to hear about their homes. I'm delivering the most devastating news that they have ever got in their lives.'

There have been no reports of deaths or injury in the area, or other coastal parts of the county. 

'That's just a true blessing', Lt. Scott Tummond told the Times, but added that workers would continue to be in rescue mode. 

Recovery mode, he said, would start after they make sure the safety of those who need assistance is complete.

 Bobbitt said Helene was the most violent force he had ever experienced, even finding it hard to explain how powerful it was. 

He expects the recovery of the small community and the island as a whole to take years.

'I expect there to be a mass exodus. There will be no services here for months. There’s no stores. No restaurants.

'It’s over,' he said grimly.

The storm left a devastating path of destruction across Florida and the entire southeastern US, killing at least 40 people in four states. 

The storm has since been downgraded to a tropical depression and is located around 125 miles southeast of Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday afternoon. 

According to the National Hurricane Center its sustained winds had dropped to 30 mph, after previously recording maximum sustained winds of 140 mph. 

At least 15 people have died in Georgia, a further eight in Florida, and a reported seventeen died in South Carolina. 

One person died in Florida by a falling tree, while another was struck by a sign on Interstate 4 in Tampa. 

In South Carolina two firefighters died after responding to calls, while two other deaths were put down to fallen trees. 

In neighboring North Carolina four people were critically injured and numerous others sustained minor injuries after a tornado touched down in Rocky Mount. 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, meanwhile, issued a statement saying that four counties were now under a state of emergency on Friday afternoon. 

He urged citizens to stay safe and said the state was seeing widespread power outages. Around 4.4 million Americans were without power on Friday afternoon. 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said dozens of people were still trapped in buildings damaged by the Category 4 hurricane. 

In Tennessee, patients and caregivers sought shelter on the roof of the Unicoi County Hospital near the border with North Carolina after it flooded. 

The facility was flooded on Friday morning after the nearby Nolichucky River burst its banks and flooded the facility. 

Due to the treacherous conditions, boats were sent by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and everyone was forced onto the roof. 

After failed attempts by helicopters to land safely on the building due to the high winds, a state police helicopter managed to land and hoist those stranded to safety. 

Senator Bill Hagerty confirmed just after 4pm EST that everyone had been rescued from the roof.  

The damage extended hundreds of miles to the north, with flooding as far away as North Carolina, where a lake used in the movie "Dirty Dancing" overtopped a dam. 

Multiple hospitals in southern Georgia were without power, and one in Tennessee was closed. 

Airports in Florida that closed due to the hurricane were reopened Friday. That included airports in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland and Tallahassee.

At Tampa International Airport there had been 130 flight cancellations in the past 24 hours, as of Friday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

Airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, remained open Friday but were reporting large numbers of cancellations and heavy delays. 

By 2 p.m., nearly 400 flights to or from Charlotte had been canceled. Nearly 580 more, to or from Charlotte, were delayed.

At the larger Atlanta airport, 175 flights were canceled and more than 500 were delayed.