Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend late Thursday night before weakening into a tropical storm and continuing its northward movement, the National Hurricane Center said, triggering millions of power outages across multiple states Thursday night and Friday morning.
As of the 8 a.m. ET advisory from the NHC, the storm was located about 35 miles south-southwest of Clemson, South Carolina, with maximum sustained winds near 60 mph.
The hurricane center said Helene was moving north and expected to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley later Friday and Saturday. Continued weakening of the storm is expected, as Helene is expected to become a post-tropical low Friday afternoon or evening, the NHC said.
“However, damaging wind gusts will penetrate far inland across the southeastern United States, including over the higher terrain of the southern Appalachians,” the NHC said in the advisory.
Helene has brought widespread power outages and flooding to portions of the Southeast, including Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Here’s what to know about power outages in North Carolina and South Carolina as Helene moves through the area.
Helene live updates:Helene tearing through Georgia; 4 dead; 3.5 million without power
Helene tracker:See projected path as hurricane weakens to tropical storm
South Carolina power outage map
As of 8:55 a.m. ET, there were over 1.2 million power outages reported across South Carolina, mainly along the western portion of the state.
According to the USA TODAY power outage map, there were over 248,000 outages reported in Greenville County, over 165,000 outages reported in Spartanburg County, and over 87,000 outages reported in Anderson County.
North Carolina power outage map
As of 8 a.m. ET, there were over 428,000 outages reported across North Carolina, according to the USA TODAY power outage map.
The western portion of the state appears to be the area most heavily affected, with over 80,000 outages reported in Mecklenburg County and over 63,000 outages reported in Henderson County.
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.
