Helene slams Florida as Category 4 hurricane then rapidly weakens as it moves inland; more than 2 million without power
Hurricane Helene was a dangerous Category 4 storm when it made landfall over Florida's Big Bend area late Thursday night but weakened rapidly as it raced inland early Friday and was downgraded to a tropical storm in mere hours, the National Hurricane Center said. Still, Helene was bringing a "life-threatening" storm surge, strong winds and heavy rain, the center said.
As of 5 a.m. EDT, Helen was approximately 40 miles east of Macon, Georgia and 100 miles southeast of Atlanta and was racing north at 30 mph, the Miami-based hurricane center said. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, 4 mph below the threshold for a storm to have hurricane status and half what they were when Helene moved ashore over the Big Bend area of Florida's Gulf Coast.
Helene made landfall about 10 miles west of Perry, Florida, at 11:10 p.m. Eastern Time, according to the hurricane center, with maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour.
Some 1.2 million customers in Florida were without power early Friday morning, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
Approximately 840,000 in Georgia and 552,000 in South Carolina and 191,000 in North Carolina had no electricity. Those numbers were growing rapidly.
What's more, about 9,000 homes and businesses had no power in Virginia, for a total of almost 2.8 million in the five states.
So far, there have been at least three weather-related deaths attributed to Helene. Two people were killed in Wheeler County, Georgia, the county coroner, Ted Mercer, told CBS New by phone. No further details were provided.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed in a late-night news conference that at least one person was killed in the Tampa area when a traffic sign fell on a vehicle.
DeSantis said about 3,500 National Guardsmen were standing by to respond to emergencies.
Several airports closed because of the storm, and airlines canceled nearly 1,300 flights Thursday, according to FlightAware. More than 600 U.S. flights were already canceled as of 5:30 a.m.
The outlook
"A turn toward the north is expected this morning, taking the center over central and northeastern Georgia. After that, Helene is expected to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley later today and Saturday," the hurricane center reported. "Continued weakening is expected, and Helene is expected to become a post-tropical low this afternoon or tonight.
"However, the fast forward speed will allow strong, damaging winds, especially in gusts, to penetrate well inland across the southeastern United States, including over the higher terrain of the southern Appalachians."
The center also said that, "Over portions of the Southeastern U.S. into the Southern Appalachians, Helene is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 6 to 12 inches, with isolated totals around 20 inches. This rainfall will likely result in catastrophic and potentially life-threatening flash and urban flooding, along with significant and record river flooding. Numerous significant landslides are expected in steep terrain across the southern Appalachians."
CBS News senior weather and climate producer David Parkinson described Helene as a "gargantuan" storm.
Its tropical-storm-force winds were extending outward up to 275 miles from its center, mainly east of that center, the hurricane center said.
NASA shared video of the hurricane as seen from the International Space Station, showing the size of the storm as it churned through the Gulf of Mexico Thursday afternoon.
Forecasters expected the storm surge to reach five-to-ten feet from the Florida's Aucilla River to Chassahowitzka, Florida. Other areas could see anywhere from three-to-seven feet of water, the hurricane center warned.
"The water impacts are probably going to be the most impactful part of the storm, the most deadly part of the storm," Jamie Rhome, a deputy director at the hurricane center, told CBS News.
The possibility of tornadoes remained a concern, with the hurricane center saying they could pop up in parts of eastern Georgia, Friday morning and through the afternoon over the Carolinas and southern Virginia.
President Biden and DeSantis declared emergencies in the state earlier in the week, and evacuation orders were issued in several counties. At the University of Tampa, officials were trying to evacuate all residential students by Wednesday afternoon.
States of emergency were also declared in Georgia, North and South Carolina and as far north as Virginia.
Exceptionally warm Gulf water fuels hurricanes
Record-warm water in the Gulf almost certainly acted like jet fuel in intensifying the storm. Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, recently noted that ocean heat content in the Gulf of Mexico is the highest on record. Warm water is a necessary ingredient to strengthen tropical systems.
Sea surface temperatures in the path of Helene were as warm as 89 degrees Fahrenheit — 2 to 4 degrees above normal.
These record water temperatures have been made significantly more likely by human-caused climate change, according to Climate Central. The North Atlantic Ocean as a whole has seen record warm temperatures in 2024, storing 90% of the excess heat from climate change produced by greenhouse gas pollution.
