Watch a live tracker of Hurricane Helene as it makes landfall in Florida and threatens the southern U.S.
made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida's Big Bend region at about 11:10 p.m. ET, according to the National Hurricane Center.
A driver was killed after a sign fell onto the driver's car in Tampa tonight, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. In Wheeler County, Georgia, two people died when an apparent tornado overturned a mobile home, a county official said. The maximum sustained winds were 110 mph, which would make it a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Hurricane force winds were felt up to 60 miles away and tropical storm force winds outward of up to 310 miles. The hospital said the"water-impermeable barrier" is made to withstand storm surges up to 15 feet. Storm surges could reach up to 20 feet in some Florida areas as Helene passes through. Wheeler County is about 340 miles north of Florida's Big Bend region, which is where Helene made landfall at around 11:10 p.m. ET.The southern Georgia cities of Valdosta, Thomasville and Quitman were issued an “extreme wind warning” late tonight because of fast-moving Hurricane Helene.The warnings should be treated like tornado warnings, the weather service says."Move immediately to an interior room or shelter NOW!" it warned.
Those within the affected area should not drain water, take showers, do laundry or flush toilets, as doing so will cause sewage to back up into buildings, the city said."It will take at least a minimum of 48 hours to resume plant operations after it’s turned off," the city said."City staff will need to carefully inspect the plant to be sure it can be safely restarted and make any repairs if necessary before resuming operations.
The storm, which is still churning with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, is creating"catastrophic winds" that are expected to spread across the region in the coming hours. “We’re expecting unprecedented rainfall amounts in a two- to three-day period,” said Andrew Kimball, a National Weather Service forecaster in the Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, office, adding that forecasters expect rivers to flood at record levels.
Connie Russo didn’t decide to stay at her mobile home park in the Tampa-area community of Palm River out of pride or self-confidence. It came down to dollars and cents. Hurricane Helene is a powerful Category 4 storm that is expected to make landfall later tonight near Florida’s Big Bend.The declaration authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts,"which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by" the storm"and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures," according to a statement from the White House.
The city is less concerned with threatening storm surges because it's inland, and it expects above-average rainfall, but the biggest threat is the city's towering oak trees, Dailey said. Griffith added that she is grateful to the university for the support for students staying on campus, including providing housing for animals, including Fig.A catastrophic storm surge is expected after Hurricane Helene’s landfall in Florida, with flooding reaching up to 20 feet in some places.The center of Category 4 Hurricane Helene was around 115 miles south of Tallahassee at 8 p.m. as it continued its path toward the Big Bend region of the state.
“We are having those lower bands that are coming around, that are pulling the water into Tampa Bay,” Mayor Jane Castor said on NBC News Now. “And so we are seeing flooding that we expect to increase.”Hurricane Helene could continue to strengthen before the storm's center reaches Florida's coast in the next few hours, the National Hurricane Center said in its 8 p.m. ET update.
Deputies have been going door to door in coastal areas in Wakulla County, which is in the Big Bend area, for the last 24 hours ensuring people in evacuation zones have left, he said. The furniture store has been in McNeal's family for 65 years, since his grandfather opened it in 1958, and he said he intends to pass it down to his grandchildren.
"It's about life and family," McNeal said."The store can be replaced, so you worry about the people you love here in town and your friends." Taylor County includes the city of Perry and the communities of Fish Creek, Athena, Shady Grove and Steinhatchee. “I did not take the chance that this was going to fill up,” she said, adding she was glad she came early and was able to secure a spot for herself and her beloved dog, 2-year-old Ducky. “This is the first time that I’ve been not in a safe structure for one of these.”
As Hurricane Helene approaches Florida’s Big Bend region, officials in Hernando County warned those who have stayed behind in defiance of evacuation orders to leave now. There is a chance that some residents may lose water and be unable to take showers or flush toilets if the storm surge forces a northeast water reclamation facility to be shut down, he said.
Helene was about 120 miles west of Tampa and 165 miles south of Tallahassee. It was moving north-northeast at 23 mph.Traffic camera video from the Florida Highway Patrol showed large waves lapping up against the Howard Frankland Bridge, which stretches across Old Tampa Bay. Lillie Edwards, 60, her husband, Bobby Joe Edwards Sr., 77, and their grandson Tavarrious Dixon, 19, were taking shelter at Fairview Middle School in Tallahassee.During Hurricane Michael in 2018, which made landfall as a Category 5 storm, waters reached up to 6 feet and flooded her yard and street to the point where “we had to use a boat to get out,” she said.“All the stuff that was in my yard got washed down to my mom’s yard,” she said. That storm tore the top of the roof of her home, she said.
“There are some people, they’re not going to move no matter what. That’s some part of my family,” she said. “I want them to move. I want them to get out of the trailer.” The Category 3 hurricane was 130 miles west of Tampa and about 175 miles south of Tallahassee, Florida, as of a 5 p.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center.
Helene is also expected to bring between 6 to 12 inches of rain to the Southeastern U.S., with isolated totals of about 20 inches, the hurricane center said. “If you’re just bound and determined to stay and not get out of harm’s way, go and take a black magic marker, write your name, your Social Security number, everything on your arm and we can identify you. I don’t like telling people that, but it is going on,” Padgett said.
“I’ve been here three months. I love this place, I love this community,” he said, noting the restaurant had also been damaged in Hurricane Michael in 2018. “If it tears up, we’ll rebuild and try again.”“It’s a tough situation for us. We want everybody to get out, be safe, do what they need to do to be safe,” Turner said. He's been preparing for days, removing all his kitchen equipment and storing perishables in a refrigerator trailer donated by a family member.
As of 3 p.m. ET, drivers heading east or west were still able to cross that bridge as well as the Gandy Bridge and the Courtney Campbell Causeway,Some of the counties that have the most customers without power include Miami-Dade, with 16,552; Sarasota, with 15,896; Collier, with 12,961; Charlotte, with 12,191 and Lee with 10,333.Hurricane Helene is expected to weaken after it makes landfall, but the storm’s impacts will still be significant as it moves inland.
The space station passed near, but not directly overhead, of Helene and beamed back footage from an altitude of 260 miles above Earth.A Category 3 hurricane has winds ranging from 111-129 mph. Category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes because of their potential for damage and loss of life.
“You need to listen to your local officials,” she said. “If they tell you to evacuate, please do so. And if they tell you to shelter in place, then that’s what you should do. They’re going to give you the best information that you can do for your specific situation. Those decisions can save lives.”, which rates storms from 1 to 5 based on their wind speed, where 5 is the strongest and most devastating. Hurricane Helene is currently a Category 2 storm, with wind speeds of 100 mph.
Florida State University students who live off campus sought shelter at their school this morning, ahead of Hurricane Helene’s expected landfall later today as a destructive Category 3 or 4 storm. In some of the hardest-hit spots on the west coast of Florida, storm surge could reach up to 20 feet, creating an “unsurvivable scenario” along those coastlines, Michael Brennan, director of the NHC, said in a live broadcast shortly after 11 a.m. ET.“That speed is going to increase to over 20 mph by the time Helene makes landfall later this evening,” Brennan said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said this morning the state will have 30,000 linemen staged to restore power after the hurricane passes.Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the running mate of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has urged anyone still in the areas expected to be affected most by storm surges in Florida and Georgia to leave.
Florida has 3,500 soldiers ready to respond to the storm, 200 Florida Highway Patrol troopers are ready to deploy, and the Florida Department of Transportation has 550 generators and 40 large pumps ready to remove water from low-lying areas. Flash flood risk will increase overnight as Helene pushes inland, with parts of the Big Bend and southern Appalachians under a high risk.In Pinellas County, near Tampa on Florida's west coast, officials chastised locals who defied mandatory evacuation orders for people living in"Zone A" near the shoreline.
The refuge space will open at 10 a.m. today and students “must be in place by 12 noon… as travel conditions will begin to deteriorate at that time.” FSU had opened a refuge facility at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center as well for off campus students., also in Tallahassee, has a shelter at the Al Lawson Center run by the Red Cross for students and community residents.
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