Hurricane Helene slammed into northwest Florida on Thursday night as a Category 4 storm as forecasters warned the massive system could create a “dangerous” storm surge and bring dangerous winds and rain to much of the southeastern US.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Helene roared ashore shortly after 11 pm ET. along the Aucilla River in the Big Bend area of ​​Florida’s Gulf Coast. It had wind gusts of about 225 kilometers per hour.
Helene triggered hurricane warnings and flash floods that extended as far offshore as northern Georgia and western North Carolina. Before landfall, strong winds had already knocked out power to nearly 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.
The governors of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared states of emergency.
Two people have been reported dead in a possible tornado in southern Georgia as the storm approaches.
Helene comes nearly a year after Hurricane Idalia hit Florida’s Big Bend and caused extensive damage. Idalia was a Category 4 in the Gulf of Mexico but came in as a Category 3 near Keaton Beach, with maximum sustained winds near 205 km/h.
Debris crashes ashore
The storm’s fury was felt widely, with strong winds and storm surges along Florida’s west coast. Water rose over a road in Siesta Key near Sarasota, Fla., and covered other intersections in St. Pete Beach along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Logs and other debris from last week’s Cedar Key fire were washing ashore in rising water.
Heavy rains began to fall and winds blew hard in Valdosta, Ga., near the Florida state line. The US National Weather Service said more than a dozen counties in Georgia could see strong winds.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said models suggested Helene would make landfall further east than previously forecast, reducing the chance of a direct hit for the capital city of Tallahassee, whose metro area has about 395,000 people.
The change is a storm aimed squarely at the sparsely populated Big Bend, home to fishing spots and vacation hideaways where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet.
“Please write your name, date of birth, and important information on your arm or leg in PERMANENT MARKER so you can be identified and notified by family,” the sheriff’s office in rural Taylor County warned in a Facebook post, for those who choose not to. evacuate, bad advice similar to what other officials have done during past hurricanes.
Still, Philip Tooke, a commercial fisherman who took over the business his father founded near the state’s Apalachee Bay, plans to ride out the storm like he did during Hurricane Michael and others — on his boat. “If I lose that, I have nothing.”
Getting out before the storm
Many, however, were obeying mandatory evacuation orders from the Panhandle south along the Gulf Coast to low-lying areas in Tallahassee, Gainesville, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa and Sarasota.
Among them was Sharonda Davis, one of the few huddled in a Tallahassee shelter worried that their homes would not survive the wind. He said the size of the typhoon “is scarier than anything because it is the consequences we will have to deal with.”
Federal authorities were organizing search and rescue teams as the US National Weather Service office in Tallahassee predicted storm surges of up to six feet and warned that they could be “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Apalachee Bay.
“Please, please take any exit orders seriously!” said the office, describing the situation as a “nightmare.”
This stretch of Florida called the Forgotten Coast has largely survived the condo and commercial boom that dominates many of Florida’s coastal communities. The region is popular for its natural wonders – vast expanses of salt marshes, lagoons and barrier islands.
“You live down here, you risk losing everything to a bad storm,” said Anthony Godwin, who lives less than a mile from the water in the coastal town of Panacea, Fla., as he stopped for gas before heading west. at his sister’s house in Pensacola, Fla.
Many school districts and universities have canceled classes. Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed Thursday, and cancellations were widespread elsewhere in Florida and beyond.
Although Helene may weaken as it moves inland, damaging winds and heavy rain are expected to extend into the southern Appalachian Mountains, where landslides were possible, forecasters said. The US National Hurricane Center warned that much of the region could face prolonged power outages and flooding. Tennessee was among the states expected to be inundated.
