Forecasters say it threatens a “catastrophic” storm surge in parts of northwestern Florida, as well as damaging winds, rains and flash floods hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern United States.
By Kate Payne and Heather Hollingsworth, Associated PressThe grandchildren and great grandchildren of Vera Kelly, of Tallahassee, sit together after evacuating to a hurricane shelter at Fairview Middle School, ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall here today, in Leon County, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024.
The storm was expected to make landfall in the Big Bend region, where Florida’s panhandle and peninsula meet, according to Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The National Weather Service office in Tallahassee forecast storm surges of up to 20 feet and warned they could be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Florida’s Apalachee Bay. It added that high winds and heavy rains also posed risks.“This forecast, if realized, is a nightmare surge scenario for Apalachee Bay,” the office said.
“We’re not really hopeful about it. We’re being realistic,” Godwin said. “It’s a part of life. You live down here, you run the risk of losing everything to a bad storm. It is what it is.”Helene was about 320 miles southwest of Tampa on Thursday morning and moving north-northeast at 12 mph with top sustained winds of 100 mph . Forecasters said it should become a Category 3 or higher hurricane, meaning winds would top 110 mph .
The storm formed Tuesday in the Caribbean Sea. In Cuba, the government preventively shut off power in some communities as waves as high as 16 feet slammed Cortes Bay. And in the Cayman Islands, schools closed and residents pumped water from flooded homes.
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