Florida braces for monster storm Helene as 'unsurvivable' category 4 hurricane packing 130mph winds expected to slam into Gulf Coast within HOURS

Hurricane Helene is set to strike Florida's Gulf Coast within hours, threatening an 'unsurvivable' storm surge that would leave catastrophic damage and could deluge cities and swallow homes.

Helene could roar ashore as a Category 4 hurricane by tonight, with wind speeds of up to 130mph after spending days strengthening in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center warned.

Forecasters predict Helene could bring storm surges of up to 20 feet (6 meters) and warned they could be particularly 'catastrophic and life-threatening' in Florida's Apalachee Bay. Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm's arrival.

The storm may also bring heavy rain, damaging winds, and flash floods hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern US, forecasters said. 

The chilling warnings have sent residents scrambling for higher ground, closed schools, and led to states of emergency across the Southeast. 

Helene was about 425 miles (680 kilometers) southwest of Tampa and moving north at 9 mph (15 kph) with top sustained winds of 85 mph (137 kph) early Thursday morning. 

Forecasters said it should become a major Category 3 or higher hurricane, meaning winds would top 110 mph (177 kph). 

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 National Hurricane Center (NHC) 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.

'A catastrophic and deadly storm surge is likely along portions of the Florida Big Bend coast, where inundation could reach as high as 20 feet above ground level, along with destructive waves,' according to the NHC. 

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.

The storm formed Tuesday in the Caribbean Sea. In Cuba, the government preventively shut off power in some communities as waves as high as 16 feet (5 meters) slammed Cortes Bay. 

And in the Cayman Islands, schools closed and residents pumped water from flooded homes.

Rain was already falling steadily in Atlanta on Wednesday evening as shoppers emptied shelves of water at a Kroger supermarket east of downtown. 

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Atlanta issued flash flood warnings for much of the state.

But it's not just those along the coast who will be at risk but inland as well with very real likelihood of life-threatening flash flooding, damaging winds and some tornadoes spinning out of the monster storm hitting parts of the southeast. 

Helene is the fifth hurricane of the 2024 hurricane season and as of Thursday morning is about 400 miles  southwest of Tampa, Florida and moving northwards with sustained winds of 85mph. 

Forecasts suggest that landfall is most likely to happen along Florida's Big Bend or the eastern Panhandle region, although the impact will be felt far from the center.

By Friday, Helene should move quickly northwards across the southeast and towards the southern Appalachians and Ohio Valley with strong winds and damaging gusts, together with the possibility of tornados. 

More than 40 million people in Florida, Georgia and Alabama were under hurricane and tropical storm warnings, the hurricane center said. 

Forecasters are warning the storm will intensify as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico on its path to Florida. 

The storm had already prompted residents to evacuate, schools to close and officials to declare emergencies in Florida and Georgia.

Because Helene is such a fast-moving storm, it won't dump as much rain on Florida as past hurricanes have done, but its winds may impact places as far inland as northern Georgia, Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami said.

'You are going to see destructive winds not only in Tallahassee but in Atlanta,' McNoldy said. 'You are going to have a major hurricane plowing inland, and storms take a little time to decay once they're inland.'

'That this is going to be a large and strong storm,' McNoldy said. 'It is going to be moving very quickly.'

The NHC has issued hurricane warnings for part of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Florida's northwestern coastline, where large storm surges of up to 20 feet are expected.

State emergency officials in Florida have been partnering with Uber to take residents to shelters in communities under evacuation orders.

'The way this is tracking, it's a storm that is stronger than what we've seen in the region, I think, in anyone's memory,' DeSantis said on Wednesday afternoon at a news conference at the state emergency operations center in Tallahassee. 

'Some of this may be unchartered ground, certainly for most people who are living here now.'

DeSantis warned residents they needed to make their final preparations with the governor urging coastal communities to heed evacuation orders, saying residents don't need to drive hundreds of miles away from their homes but just find higher ground at a shelter, hotel or friend's house.

'The models vary on how intense this could be, but there's clearly a pathway for this to rapidly intensify prior to making landfall,' DeSantis said.

Airports in St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and Tampa are planning to close on Thursday, and 62 hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities evacuated their residents on Wednesday in anticipation of the storm. 

Law enforcement planned to close bridges once winds reached 40 mph at a sustained level, officials said.

Residents in coastal Wakulla County on the Florida panhandle are under a countywide mandatory evacuation order. But it doesn't mean they'll all leave.

Shelby Hill made a stop at a Walmart in the city of Crawfordville with her husband and three kids Wednesday afternoon to pick up the fixings for a chicken enchilada casserole - some comfort food to ease their nerves.

'You can feel the energy. Everybody's moving,' Hill said. 'You can tell everybody's actually really nervous and wants to be prepared.'

Hill said her family will soon be hitting the road to stay the night with her in-laws in the next county to the north, Leon County. After that, they plan to continue on to Georgia, in the hopes of outrunning the worst of Helene.

A couple aisles over in the frozen food section, Christine Nazworth said she considered evacuating her home in 2018 ahead of Hurricane Michael and again this week ahead of Helene. Both times, she said she was 'outvoted' by other family members, so they´ll be sheltering in place.

'Hating to leave but hating to stay too,' Nazworth said. 'So just kinda go with the flow.'

Georgia 

In the neighboring state of Georgia, at a Kroger supermarket east of downtown Atlanta, with rain falling steadily after sunset on Wednesday, one shopper was filling three separate orders; each included a dozen bottles of water.

While there was still plenty of bread, water shelves were already growing barren.

Sergio Garcia, who was shopping for himself, also had water in his cart, along with bread, Coca-Cola, macaroni, chicken wings and Pop Tarts.

'I'm here to lightly stock up,' said Garcia, who said he had experienced hurricanes while growing up in northern Virginia near Washington, D.C. 'With the rain that just started picking up, I did want to pick up a few things for the storm.'

Charles McComb, who has lived in Atlanta since 2003, said he still found it hard to believe Helene would seriously impact the city, which is more than 250 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico.

'It would be really unique for it to hit so far inland,' Charles said as he bought water, bread and lunch meat.

McComb, though, said he was worried about losing electricity.

'I do live in an area where it doesn't take so much for the power to go out,' he said.

Because the storm is moving faster than previously forecast, hurricane warnings have been extended even farther inland. 

State meteorologist Will Lanxton said tropical-storm force winds are expected throughout the state.

Due to the high winds, Helene could cause one of the most significant electrical outages the state has seen in a while.

Like officials in Florida, those in Georgia warned that people should be prepared to be self-sufficient for as long as 72 hours after the storm. 

Many Georgia schools have cancelled in-person classes for Thursday and Friday, including a number of large metro Atlanta school systems that had previously held off.

Gwinnett County, the state's largest, said it would operate a virtual learning day on Thursday and call off classes entirely on Friday.

The University of Georgia also canceled all classes at its main Athens campus on Thursday and Friday, while Georgia Tech in Atlanta said it would cancel in-person classes.

Georgia has activated 250 National Guard soldiers beginning Thursday and will stage them for rapid deployment. State game wardens, foresters and Department of Correction teams will also help provide swift-water rescues and other emergency responses.

All 159 counties in Georgia from Savannah to the Blue Ridge Mountains are under either a hurricane watch or warning or a tropical storm watch or warning.

'We're setting up for a shocking, intense storm from one end of the state to the other,' University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd said.

Helene is quite big for an Atlantic hurricane and is moving fast - a combination that could mean major flooding and days if not weeks of power outages in Atlanta some 250 miles  away from where the hurricane is expected to make landfall.

South Georgia can expect hurricane force winds while no part of the state will likely avoid some kind of dangerous weather, Sheppard said.

And for Atlanta, Helene could be the worst strike on a major Southern inland city in 35 years.

'It's going to be a lot like Hugo in Charlotte,' Sheppard said of the 1989 storm that struck the major North Carolina city, knocking out power to 85 percent of customers and leveling some 80,000 trees as winds gusted above hurricane force.

The hurricane warning area for Georgia included Albany, southwest Georgia's largest city with a population of 67,000, as well as Valdosta, home to 55,000 along Interstate 75. 

Helene comes barely a year after Valdosta and surrounding Lowndes County took a beating from Hurricane Idalia, which damaged more than 1,000 homes and inflicted more than $6 million in damage.

South Carolina

In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster has declared a state of emergency in South Carolina, saying Hurricane Helene is going to be a dangerous storm even as the state avoids the brunt of the impacts.

Wednesday's declaration allows the state to put in place emergency plans to coordinate between agencies and the federal government and opens the doors for counties and local governments to request assistance.

The coast and much of the western half of South Carolina is expecting tropical storm-force winds; a flash flood watch is also in effect. 

Parts of the mountains in extreme northern South Carolina could see up to 15 inches of rain, the National Weather Service said.

'Although South Carolina will likely avoid the brunt of Hurricane Helene's impacts, the storm is still expected to bring dangerous flooding, high winds, and isolated tornadoes to many parts of the state,' McMaster said in a statement.

Hurricane experts worry that Helene's overall size and whip-fast forward speed will cause extra damage, keeping its strength longer as it penetrates inland into Georgia and beyond.

With tropical storm force winds expected to extend for more than 200 miles, Hurricane Helene is forecast to be one of the largest storms in seven years to hit the Gulf of Mexico region, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

He said since 1988, only three Gulf of Mexico hurricanes have been bigger: 2017´s Irma, 2005´s Wilma and 1995´s Opal.

'By every measure, this makes it worse,' said University of Miami senior hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy.

 'Hurricane force winds are just going to plow their way into Georgia too. Places that are not used to experiencing hurricanes are going to experience one.´´

Given the storm's size and where it is forecast to hit, Gallagher Re, an insurance firm, is predicting between $3 billion to $6 billion in privately insured damages with another $1 billion in public insurance damage, including flood insurance.

North Carolina 

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a State of Emergency on Wednesday as the state prepares for severe weather impacts that could threaten life and property across North Carolina through Saturday morning.

'Helene threatens heavy rain, flash flooding, landslides, and damaging winds to the mountains and Piedmont areas of our state,' Cooper said. 'Now is the time for North Carolinians to prepare, make sure emergency kits are up-to-date and pay attention to the weather alerts in your area.'

The State Emergency Response Team is deploying equipment, personnel and resources to support impacted communities, including resources from the North Carolina National Guard.

Mexico & Cuba

Parts of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula were under hurricane warnings as Helene wound between it and the western tip of Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday night.

The storm formed Tuesday in the Caribbean, and it flooded streets and toppled trees as it passed offshore and brushed the Mexican resort city of Cancun.

In Cuba, authorities moved cattle to higher ground and medical brigades went to communities often cut off by storms. 

The government preventively shut off power in some communities as waves as high as 16 feet slammed Cortes Bay. 

Further Storm Activity 

Tropical Storm Isaac formed Wednesday in the Atlantic and was expected to strengthen as it moves eastward across the open ocean, possibly becoming a hurricane by the end of the week, forecasters said. 

Isaac was about 690 miles (1,115 kilometers) northeast of Bermuda with top sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph), according to the NHC in Miami, which said its swells and winds could affect parts of Bermuda and eventually the Azores by the weekend.

In the Pacific, former Hurricane John reformed Wednesday as a tropical storm and was strengthening as it threatened areas of Mexico's western coast. Officials posted hurricane warnings for southwestern Mexico.

John hit the country's southern Pacific coast late Monday, killing at least two people, triggering mudslides, and damaging homes and trees. 

It grew into a Category 3 hurricane in a matter of hours and made landfall east of Acapulco. It reemerged over the ocean after weakening inland.