TALLAHASSEE, Fla. − Hurricane Helene strengthened to a Category 2 storm Thursday and was growing even more powerful as it roared toward landfall and likely devastation along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
A Thursday forecast from the National Hurricane Center shows the hurricane approaching landfall Thursday night as a Category 3 with winds near 115 mph. AccuWeather forecasters were predicting Helene would reach Category 4 strength − winds of 131 to 155 mph −in the Gulf and maintain that intensity through landfall.
Several Florida counties have ordered evacuations, and four of them − Franklin, Taylor, Liberty and Wakulla − with a total population of more than 70,000 people have ordered all residents to leave. Wakulla County Sheriff Jared Miller warned residents Thursday that Wakulla could face “catastrophic” storm surge.
“This will not be a survivable event for those in coastal or low lying areas,” Miller said in a Facebook post. “There has not been a storm of this magnitude to hit Wakulla in recorded history.”
On the forecast track, Helene will make landfall in the Florida Big Bend region Thursday night, the National Hurricane Center said. After landfall, Helene is expected to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley on Friday and Saturday. Florida will get hit first, but other states are bracing for a severe blow.
“Helene is a very dangerous hurricane and could become a ‘once-in-a-generation storm’ across western South Carolina and North Carolina, as well as northern and eastern Georgia,” AccuWeather Senior Director of Forecasting Operations Dan DePodwin said.
Hurricane Helene tracker:See projected path of ‘catastrophic’ storm as Florida braces
Developments:
∎ The storm was centered about 255 southwest of Tampa early Thursday. Maximum sustained winds were 105 mph, and Helene was headed north-northeast at 14 mph.
∎ All commercial flight operations at Tampa International Airport were suspended Thursday. The airport will remain closed “until it can assess any damage after the storm,” according to a statement on the airport website.
∎ Florida State and Florida A&M Universities opened their doors to students and Tallahassee residents. The American Red Cross was using FAMU’s Al Lawson Center on campus as a shelter open to the general public; FSU was opening a refuge facility at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center on Thursday to registered students who live off-campus.
How much damage could Helene do in Florida?
Helene’s true toll will depend on where it makes landfall, and how its other effects such as flooding, storm surge and tornadoes unfold. But its wind speed and category at landfall will especially affect power outages and structural damage. If it does hit at Cat 4 power, the storm by definition would be be expected to leave a trail of “catastrophic” damage. The National Hurricane Center says Category 4 storms threaten well-built framed homes with “severe” damage, potentially losing both roof and walls. Most trees are snapped or uprooted and power poles are downed.
“Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months,” the hurricane center says of Category 4 storms.
A Category 3 storm, while significantly weaker, is still a major hurricane. “Electricity and water will be unavailable for several days to weeks after the storm passes,” the center says of Category 3 storms.
Learn more onthe Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale and thedangers of storm surge.
− Doyle Rice
Most Florida schools cancel classes
Most Florida schools were closed Thursday ahead of Hurricane Helene’s landfall, according to Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY Network. The Florida Department of Education issued a news release with a list of school closures, and the department said it’s working closely with districts to get them the resources they need to resume normal operations as soon as possible.
The University of Florida in Gainesville was closed Thursday, and Florida A&M University and the New College of Florida closed earlier this week, through Friday, according to the education department’s statement. At least 33 other colleges and universities are temporarily shutting down their campuses, according to the Florida Department of Education.
Dozens of school districts across the state are also closed, affecting K-12 students, as the entire state is blanketed in hurricane and tornado watches.
− Claire Thornton
Flooding begins along southwest, central Florida coast
Floodwaters began to inundate roads along the central and southwest coast of Florida on Thursday morning. In communities including Fort Myers Beach, Sarasota, Venice, Bradenton and several in the Tampa Bay area, officials have announced road closures as heavy rain and storm surge lead to flooding along coastal and low-lying areas.
Sanibel city spokesman Eric Jackson, citing widespread flooding across the Lee County island, urged people not to drive on flooded streets. Molly McCollum, a meteorologist with the Weather Channel, captured video of fish swimming on a street in downtown Sarasota.
The National Hurricane Center expects a surge of water several feet high to come ashore along most of the western coast of Florida, with the highest level – 15 to 20 feet – projected to wallop the panhandle and Big Bend coast.
– Christopher Cann, USA TODAY; Dave Osborn, Naples Daily News; Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Lesson learned, residents evacuate Horseshoe Beach
Horseshoe Beach has become a ghost town ahead of Helene’s anticipated landfall, the last few residents of the coastal community making final preparations before evacuating inland. The town was devastatedby Hurricane Idalia, a Category 3 hurricane that hit Aug. 30, 2023, causing major damage to the eastern Big Bend and Nature Coast. Now it faces the prospect of a 10- to 15-foot storm surge. Or worse.
“We’re just trying to get the heck out,” Judy Paradis said as she and her husband, John, loaded their cars.
After last year’s experience, residents took the evacuation orders seriously, Judy said. The Paradises had just made Horseshoe Beach their permanent home last year after vacationing in the coastal town for several years. They said they have “survivor’s guilt” because their elevated condo was spared when so many people lost everything.
“We try not to complain because we still have our home,” John said.
Florida power outage map:Track outages as Hurricane Helene approaches from Gulf of Mexico
Up to 18 inches of rain forecast for parts of Southeast
Helene is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 6 to 12 inches over a wide swath of the Southeast in coming days. Isolated rain totals will reach 18 inches. Jack Beven, a National Hurricane Center senior hurricane specialist, said those rains will result in “potentially life threatening” flooding.
“Helene is strengthening and expected to bring catastrophic winds and storm surge to the northeastern Gulf Coast,” he warned. “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.”
Sandbox sand pressed into service as storm approaches
Emergency shipments of hurricane supplies have been flowing in all week at the Home Depot in Town ‘n’ Country, a community of more than 85,000 residents bordering the northern shore of Tampa Bay. By Thursday morning, the store’s supply of filled 50-pound sandbags had dwindled from 16 pallets to 3½ pallets, store manager Erica Jarmon said. In fact, those remaining bags were filled with play sand intended for children’s sandboxes.
“Some customers are even using bags of soil out in the garden department. Getting creative – whatever kind of barriers they can actually use,” Jarmon said, standing alongside her remaining sandbags. Other hurricane supplies: included generators, gas cans, flashlights, sump pumps, extension cords, blue tarps, plywood and more, Jarmon said.
“Fans are another big one, especially for mold, mildew, just trying to get any wet walls dried faster,” Jarmon said. “Bleach is another big one after the fact.”
− Rick Neale, Florida Today
Longtime resident listening to Helene warnings
The usually bustling Sea Hag Marina on Florida’s targeted Big Bend coast was mostly deserted Thursday ahead of Helene. Bobbi Patterson, 85, was moving anything that could get soaked − rugs, chairs, a sofa − from her home on the Steinhatchee River to another one she owns across the street. Patterson planned to evacuate to a motel in Gainesville. Her daughter, Susan Merritt, 63, was helping.
In the 40 years Patterson has owned her riverfront bungalow, it’s flooded twice. She said the media tends to overhype storms, but she’s taking this one seriously. Still, she said she hates to think she and her daughter were hauling furniture across the street for nothing.
“It’s pretty much stripped,” she said of her home on the river. “It better be something happens.”
− Anne Geggis, Palm Beach Post
DeSantis urges residents in older homes to prepare for powerful winds
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Floridians to prepare for the worst. DeSantis, appearing at the state’s Emergency Operations Center, warned residents that the capital could see 120- to 125-mph winds in the city. While Leon County is not under a mandatory evacuation zone, homeowners should know what year their home was built.
“Some of these older homes were built really well … but there’s trees everywhere. So it’s one thing to be able to withstand wind hitting the house. It’s a much different thing if you’re going to try to withstand a massive tree falling on your house,” DeSantis warned.
Katrina survivors wary of Helene
If a house was built after 2004, according to Florida building code, it will be likely to withstand 115-mph winds. But if a home was built before 2004, Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie urged people to “make decisions on solid information.”
Gene Taylor first thought his bare street looked like it did “when the French first arrived” in Mississippi during the late 1600s. “We could never have imagined the house would be gone,” he recalled. Read more here.
− Dinah Voyles Pulver
Waffle House says Tallahassee locations will stay open … for now
Known for its 24/7 service, Waffle House remains a beacon of hope during severe storms. And the good news for Tallahassee, Florida: The restaurant chain is keeping its doors open for now in Tallahassee, even as Hurricane Helene approaches.
“Right now, it’s a wait-and-see attitude,” Njeri Boss, vice president of food safety and public relations told the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network, after they had a virtual conference. “We will be monitoring the rest of the day, all night, and the foreseeable future.”
Coined by Craig Fugate, nicknamed Florida’s “Master of Disasters” as its director of emergency management, the “Waffle House Index,” the safety benchmark is not only a crisis response signal for first responders but also an informal but reliable way communities gauge the severity of a disaster.
Red, the most severe level in the three-tier code, means the restaurant is deemed unsafe, the roads around it are blocked, and water and electricity are off, for instance. Boss adds that because of the uncertainty of Helene’s path, no decision has been made to close any locations in the area.
According to Boss, that could change by later Thursday and the decision to close ultimately is up to local managers.
Contributing: Kyla A Sanford, Tarah Jean, Jeff Burlew and Ana Goñi-Lessan, Tallahassee Democrat; Reuters
