Helene strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane hours ahead of its expected landfall on Florida's northwest coast, and forecasters warned that the enormous storm could create a "nightmare" surge in coastal areas and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern US.
Category 4 hurricanes have sustained winds over 209km/h that can severely damage homes, snap trees and down power lines. Strong winds have already cut power to more than 250,000 homes and businesses in Florida, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.
The hurricane was about 195km west of Tampa and had sustained winds of 215km/h, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
Life-threatening storm surge of up to 6m were expected in the Big Bend area of Florida.
Hurricane warnings and flash flood warnings extended far beyond the coast up into northern Georgia and western North Carolina. The governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared emergencies in their states.
Helene strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane hours ahead of its expected landfall. (Source: Reuters)
Helene arrives barely a year since Idalia slammed into Florida's Big Bend and caused widespread damage. Idalia became a Category 4 in the Gulf of Mexico but made landfall as a Category 3 near Keaton Beach, with maximum sustained winds near 205km/h.
The storm's wrath was felt today with water lapping over a road on the northern tip of Siesta Key near Sarasota and covering some intersections in St Pete Beach along Florida's Gulf Coast.
Lumber and other debris from a fire in Cedar Key a week ago was crashing ashore in the rising water.
Beyond Florida, up to 25cm of rain has fallen in the North Carolina mountains, with up to 36cm more possible before the deluge ends, setting the stage for flooding that forecasters warned could be worse than anything seen in the past century.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that models suggest Helene will make landfall further east than earlier forecast, lessening the chances for a direct hit on the capital city of Tallahassee, whose metro area has a population of around 395,000.
A family rest inside a hurricane evacuation shelter at Fairview Middle School ahead of Hurricane Helene in Florida. (Source: Associated Press)
The shift has the storm aimed squarely at the sparsely-populated Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways where Florida's Panhandle and peninsula meet.
"Please write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified," the sheriff's office in mostly rural Taylor County warned those who chose not to evacuate in a Facebook post, the dire advice similar to what other officials have dolled out during past hurricanes.
Still, Philip Tooke, a commercial fisherman who took over the business his father founded near the region's Apalachee Bay, plans to ride out this storm like he did during Hurricane Michael and the others – on his boat.
"If I lose that, I don't have anything."
Many, though, were heeding the mandatory evacuation orders that stretched from the Panhandle south along the Gulf Coast in low-lying areas around Tallahassee, Gainesville, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa and Sarasota.
A car stalled in floodwaters from Hurricane Helene in Florida. (Source: Associated Press)
Among them was Sharonda Davis, one of several gathered at a Tallahassee shelter worried their mobile homes wouldn't withstand the winds. She said the hurricane's size is "scarier than anything because it's the aftermath that we're going to have to face".
Federal authorities were staging search-and-rescue teams as the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee forecast storm surges of up to 20 feet (six metres) and warned they could be particularly "catastrophic and unsurvivable" in Apalachee Bay.
"Please, please, please take any evacuation orders seriously!" the office said, describing the surge scenario as "a nightmare".
This stretch of Florida known as the Forgotten Coast has been largely spared by the widespread condo development and commercialisation that dominates so many of Florida's beach communities. The region is loved for its natural wonders — the vast stretches of salt marshes, tidal pools and barrier islands.
"You live down here, you run the risk of losing everything to a bad storm," said Anthony Godwin, 20, who lives in the coastal town of Panacea.
Along Florida's Gulf Coast, school districts and multiple universities cancelled classes. Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed, while cancellations were widespread elsewhere in the state and beyond.
While Helene will likely weaken as it moves inland, damaging winds and heavy rain were expected to extend to the southern Appalachian Mountains, where landslides were possible, forecasters said. Much of the region could experience prolonged power outages and flooding. Tennessee was among the states expected to get drenched.
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