Hurricane Helene approaching Florida.Photo:Joe Raedle/Getty
Joe Raedle/Getty
Hurricane Helenehas officially made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend, along the Gulf of Mexico, as a Category 4 storm, federal weather officials said.
The storm currently has sustained winds of 140 mph and is the strongest storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend area in recorded history. It made landfall at about 11:10 p.m. ET, about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Fla., reports theNational Hurricane Center.
“Helene stands toe-to-toe with any of the threats that Florida has faced over the past 10 years or indeed really over hurricane history,” Ryan Truchelut, a meteorologist and hurricane forecaster, previouslytoldUSA Today.
Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, toldCNNHelene will likely be a “historic inland flooding event,” adding, “Historically speaking, 50% of lives lost are in a setup like this. We’re probably going to lose a lot of lives in this setup with this much flooding potential.”
Before Helene made landfall, theNational Hurricane Centerwarned it could bring “life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rains” to much of Florida and parts of the southeastern U.S.
The federal government has predicted damaging winds and rains — as well as the risk of flash and urban flooding and landslides — will stretch as far as the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia and the Carolinas through Friday, Sept. 27.
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Hurricane Helene from space.Photo: NASA/Getty
Weather in Florida as Hurricane Helene approaches.Joe Raedle/Getty
The rainfall could hit 20 inches in some areas, weather officials said. Tornadoes are another risk.
The coast of Florida will be particularly vulnerable to storm surge from the ocean, reaching as high as 20 feet above ground level.
“After landfall [in the Big Bend], Helene is expected to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley on Friday and Saturday,” an advisory from the National Hurricane Center states.
President Joe Biden declared astate of emergencyfor Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 24, and ordered “Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Tropical Storm Helene beginning on September 23, 2024, and continuing.”
That same day, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisannounced in a post on Xthat the state had almost 18,000 linemen staged along with available search and rescue and roadway clearing crews.
source: people.com