A college football team was stranded on buses in the middle of a flooded interstate in North Carolina on Friday night, as Hurricane Helene continued to bring flash flooding across multiple southeastern states.
The team, East Tennessee State University (ETSU), was on its way to a game in Charlston to play The Citadel. But the team’s buses only made it as far as Exit 44 on I-26 when they hit floodwaters and were forced to stop on the shoulder.
“We have been stranded on our buses outside of Asheville since 11AM today because of the flooding. We were headed to Charleston to play The Citadel tomorrow at 2PM, but are stuck and sleeping on the buses tonight in the parking lot,” ETSU quarterback coach Tyler Dell said in a text message to OutKick’s Clay Travis. “…No hotels with capacity or power and no food anywhere near. We haven’t had cell service all day and it’s still down throughout the area.”
The team’s head coach, Tre Lamb, said the team was finally able to get out of the “flood trap” after 14 hours.
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“It got very scary on some low ground for a few hours, we had to find high ground. Shoutout to our bus drivers, athletic trainers, staff, officers for keeping everyone calm,” he wrote in a post on X.
Lamb said a random stranger gave the coaches a ride to shelter and later let them know the highway was open. He said they had no access to any information.
“Have yet to speak with families or loved ones but we are on the way and ready to play @Citadel1842 whenever they decide,” Lamb wrote. “Prayers for all affected. What an awful storm we saw first hand. Lots of stranded families.”
Hurricane Helene has already resulted in the postponement or cancelation of more than one other college football games this weekend. The storm was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.
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Furman University postponed its clash against Samford, while Appalachian State canceled its scheduled game against Liberty, and has indicated the program did not intend to reschedule the game.
Flooding has been one of the biggest destructive forces of the hurricane, beginning along Florida’s coast well before Hurricane Helene made landfall, with rapidly rising waters reported as far south as Fort Myers on the state’s Gulf Coast. FOX Weather’s Ian Oliver said the surge quickly flooded streets around St. Pete Beach on Thursday evening, with high tide several hours away.
The hurricane made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region, after intensifying into a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 mph. The monster hurricane unleashed a potentially “unsurvivable” 20-foot storm surge, catastrophic hurricane-force winds and flooding.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee issued a rare extreme wind warning for several counties in the Big Bend ahead of the approach of the eyewall.
The storm resulted in at least 40 deaths and is expected to cause $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.
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