‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Helene strikes Florida, pushes into Georgia

The “extremely dangerous” Hurricane Helene made landfall in the US state of Florida on Thursday night, with officials warning of “unsurvivable” conditions and a potentially catastrophic storm surge high enough to swamp a two-storey house.

More than a million people were without power and roads were already flooded ahead of what is expected to be one of the largest Gulf of Mexico storms in decades.

The degree of devastation in Florida was not expected to be known until after daybreak.

Helene hit Florida packing sustained winds of around 130mph (209kph). Forecasters warned that the enormous system could create a “nightmare” storm surge and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern US.

The governors of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and Virginia all declared emergencies in their states.

Helene was downgraded to a “strong” Category 2 hurricane on Friday, hours after it slammed into the southeastern US coast as a Category 4 storm, US forecasters said.

“Hurricane Helene is now a strong Category 2 hurricane,” the National Weather Service in Florida’s capital Tallahassee posted on X, after the latest National Hurricane Centre bulletin put maximum sustained windspeeds caused by the storm at 110kph (175kph) , downgrading it on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

“Helene continues to produce catastrophic winds that are now pushing into southern Georgia,” the hurricane centre said in an update at 1am lcoal time on Friday. “Persons should not leave their shelters and remain in place through the passage of these life-threatening conditions.”

Fast-moving Helene’s eye hit near the town of Perry at about 11:10pm local time (4.10am BST Friday), the NHC said earlier.

“We’re expecting to see a storm surge inundation of 15 to 20 feet above ground level,” NHC director Mike Brennan said. “That’s up to the top of a second-storey building. Again, a really unsurvivable scenario is going to play out here in this portion of the Florida coastline.”

The accompanying waves “can destroy houses, move cars, and that water level is going to rise very quickly’, Mr Brennan added.

President Joe Biden urged people to heed official evacuation warnings.

“I urge everyone in and near the path of Helene to listen to local officials and follow evacuation warnings,” he said. “Take this seriously, and be safe.”

One person was killed in Florida when a sign fell on their car and two people were reported killed in a possible tornado in south Georgia as the storm approached.

“When Floridians wake up tomorrow morning, we’re going to be waking up to a state where very likely there’s been additional loss of life and certainly there’s going to be loss of property,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Thursday night.

Helene was moving rapidly inland after making landfall, with the centre of the storm set to race from southern to northern Georgia through early Friday morning.

The risk of tornadoes also would continue overnight and into the morning across north and central Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and southern North Carolina, forecasters said. Later Friday, there would be the risk of tornadoes in Virginia.

Across the northern Florida coast, most small towns were deserted on Thursday, with stores closed and windows boarded up to protect against the high winds and potentially devastating storm surge

When the hurricane was about 115 miles south of Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, it had sustained winds of 130mph, according to the NHC on Thursday night.

Federal authorities were staging search-and-rescue teams as the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee forecast storm surges of up to 20 feet (6m) 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’’.

Helene arrived barely a year since Hurricane 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 125mph.

The storm’s wrath was felt widely, with sustained tropical storm-force winds and hurricane-force gusts along Florida’s west coast. Water lapped over a road in Siesta Key near Sarasota and covered some intersections in St. Pete Beach. Lumber and other debris from a fire in Cedar Key a week ago crashed ashore in the rising water.

Beyond Florida, up to 10 inches (25cm) of rain had fallen in the North Carolina mountains, with up to 14 inches more possible before the deluge ends, setting the stage for flooding that forecasters warned could be worse than anything seen in the past century.

Heavy rains began falling and winds were picking up in Valdosta, Georgia, near the Florida state line. The National Weather Service said more than a dozen Georgia counties could see hurricane-force winds exceeding 110mph. “This is one of the biggest storms we’ve ever had,” said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

Governor DeSantis said on Thursday 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.

The shift had 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, planned 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,” Mr Tooke said. Michael, a Category 5 storm, all but destroyed one town, fractured thousands of homes and businesses and caused some $25 billion in damage when it struck the Florida Panhandle in 2018.

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.

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”.

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 about a half-mile from the water in the coastal town of Panacea, as he stopped for gas before heading west toward his sister’s house in Pensacola.

School districts and multiple universities cancelled classes. Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed on Thursday, while cancellations were widespread elsewhere in Florida 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. The hurricane centre warned that much of the region could experience prolonged power outages and flooding. Tennessee was among the states expected to get drenched.

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. In western Cuba, Helene knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses as it brushed past the island.

Atlanta fears worst storm in decades

Areas 100 miles north of the Georgia-Florida line expected hurricane conditions. Most of Georgia’s public school districts and several universities cancelled classes.

The state opened its parks to evacuees, and their pets, including horses. Overnight curfews were imposed in many cities and counties in south Georgia, including Albany, Valdosta and Thomasville.

For Atlanta, Helene could be the worst strike on a major Southern inland city in 35 years, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd.

Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.

In further storm activity, Tropical Storm Isaac formed on 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. Officials said its swells and winds could affect parts of Bermuda and eventually the Azores by the weekend.

In the Pacific, former Hurricane John reformed on Wednesday as a tropical storm and strengthened on Thursday back into a hurricane as it threatened areas of Mexico’s western coast with flash flooding and mudslides.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador raised John’s death toll to five as the communities along the country’s Pacific coast prepared for the storm to make a second landfall.