Hurricane Helene could create “severe” storm surge conditions in northwest Florida, officials warned Thursday, as they urged residents to heed evacuation orders ahead of the storm, which is expected to wreak havoc hundreds of miles inland. southeastern US
Helene was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane on Thursday afternoon ahead of its expected landfall this evening on the northwest coast of Florida. Storm and flood warnings extend across the coast into south-central Georgia.
We were already starting to feel it Thursday afternoon, with a powerful storm making landfall and water crossing the road on the northern tip of Siesta Key near Sarasota, Fla.
And rain has begun to pound places like Asheville, NC, where 18 inches of flooding has raised flood concerns.
As forecasts also warn of hurricanes, damaging winds and mudslides, the governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared states of emergency, as has US President Joe Biden in several states.
The president is sending the head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Florida on Friday to assess the damage.
Gov. of Florida Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning that models suggested Helene would make landfall to the east, reducing the chances of a direct hit on the capital city of Tallahassee, a metro area of about 395,000 people.
The change is a storm aimed squarely at the sparsely populated Big Bend, home to fishing spots and vacation hideaways where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet. Closed gas stations lined the two-lane highway, their windows boarded up.
Philip Tooke, a commercial fisherman who took over the business his father founded near the state’s Apalachee Bay, plans to ride out the storm like he did during Hurricane Michael and others — on his boat.
“This is what pays my bills,” Tooke said of his boats. “If I lose that, I have nothing.”
Getting out before the storm
Many, however, were obeying mandatory evacuation orders from the Panhandle south along the Gulf Coast to low-lying areas in Tallahassee, Gainesville, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa and Sarasota.
Among them was Sharonda Davis, one of the few huddled in a Tallahassee shelter worried that their homes would not survive the wind. He said the magnitude of the typhoon is “scarier than anything because it is the consequences we will have to deal with.”
Federal authorities were organizing search and rescue teams as the US National Weather Service office in Tallahassee predicted storm surges of up to six feet and warned that they could be “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Apalachee Bay. It added that strong winds and heavy rains also cause accidents.
“Please, please take any exit orders seriously!” said the office, describing the situation as a “nightmare.”
This stretch of Florida called the Forgotten Coast has been largely spared the rampant condo and retail developments that dominate many of Florida’s coastal communities. The region is popular for its natural wonders – a vast area of salt marshes, lagoons and barrier islands; the young cypress trees of Tate’s Hell State forest; and Wakulla Springs, considered one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world.
Anthony Godwin, 20, found a gas station outside Crawfordville, Fla., where tanks were still running Thursday morning to fill up before heading west to his sister’s home in Pensacola.
“It’s part of life. You live down here, you risk losing everything to a bad storm,” said Godwin, who lives less than a mile from the water in the coastal town of Panacea, Fla.
During Hurricane Michael in 2018, Godwin said the water reached the end of the driveway of his family’s home.
Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, many school districts and universities have canceled classes. Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed Thursday, and cancellations were widespread elsewhere in the state and beyond.
Helene was about 315 kilometers southwest of Tampa on Thursday afternoon and moving northeast at 26 km/h with sustained winds of at least 179 km/h.
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