September 26, 2024
CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Fast-moving Hurricane Helene was advancing Thursday across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, threatening a “catastrophic” storm surge in northwestern parts of the state as well as damaging winds, rains and flash floods hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern U.S., forecasters said.
Helene was upgraded Thursday morning to a Category 2 storm and is expected to be a major hurricane — meaning a Category 3 or higher — when it makes landfall on Florida's northwestern coast Thursday evening. Hurricane warnings and flash flood warnings extended far beyond the coast up into south-central Georgia. The governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared emergencies in their states.
Rain was beginning to blow in the predawn darkness Thursday along coastal U.S. Highway 98, which winds through countless fishing villages and vacation hideaways along Florida’s Big Bend. Shuttered gas stations dotted the two-lane highway, their windows boarded up with plywood for protection from the storm.
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.
“Regardless of how strong it is, it is a very large storm," Beven said. “It’s going to have impacts that cover a large area.”
Mandatory evacuation orders stretched from the panhandle south along the Gulf Coast in low-lying areas around Tallahassee, Gainesville, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa and Sarasota.
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. “Please, please, please take any evacuation orders seriously!”
This stretch of Florida known as the Forgotten Coast has been largely spared by the widespread condo development and commercialization that dominates so many of Florida’s beach communities. The sparsely populated region is loved for its natural wonders — the vast stretches of salt marshes, tidal pools and barrier islands; the dwarf cypress trees of Tate’s Hell State Forest; and Wakulla Springs, considered one of the world’s largest and deepest freshwater springs.
Anthony Godwin, 20, found one gas station outside Crawfordville where the tanks were still running Thursday morning to fill up before heading west toward his sister’s house in Pensacola.
Godwin lives about a half-mile from the water in the coastal town of Panacea, and during Hurricane Michael in 2018, Godwin said the water came up to the end of the driveway of his family’s home when the storm surge reached about 12 feet. This time, they’re bracing for much worse.
“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."
Along Florida's Gulf Coast, school districts and multiple universities have cancelled classes.
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 could become a Category 3 or higher hurricane, meaning winds would top 110 mph.
While Helene will likely weaken as it moves inland, its “fast forward speed will allow strong, damaging winds, especially in gusts, to penetrate well inland across the southeastern United States,” including in the southern Appalachian Mountains, the hurricane center said. The center posted lesser tropical storm warnings as far north as North Carolina and warned that much of the region could experience prolonged power outages, toppled trees, and dangerous flooding.
Helene had swamped parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, flooding streets and toppling trees as it passed offshore and brushed the resort city of Cancun.
Helene is forecast to be one of the largest storms in breadth in years to hit the region, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. He said since 1988, only three Gulf hurricanes have been bigger than Helene’s predicted size: 2017’s Irma, 2005’s Wilma, and 1995’s Opal.
Areas 100 miles north of the Georgia-Florida line can expect hurricane conditions. More than half of Georgia’s public school districts and several universities canceled classes.
For Atlanta, Helene could be the worst strike on a major Southern inland city in 35 years, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd.
Landslides were possible in southern Appalachia, and rainfall was expected as far away as Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana.
Federal authorities have positioned generators, food, and water, along with search-and-rescue and power restoration teams.
