Hurricane Helen makes landfall in Florida (NASA)
Hurricane Helene: Nature's wrath made landfall along Florida's coastline on Thursday night as a powerful Category 4 storm, unleashing chaos across a large portion of the Gulf Coast. The storm brought with it severe winds, significant storm surges, and torrential rainfalls, putting millions at risk.
The United States National Hurricane Center, based in Miami, reported that Helene was situated approximately 70 kilometers southeast of Tallahassee, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 225 kilometers per hour late Thursday evening. The storm, which formed quickly earlier in the week, rapidly gained strength as it traveled over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, gathering speed.
Helene’s storm surge, a massive wall of seawater driven ashore by hurricane-force winds, is expected to reach as high as 20 feet (6.1 meters) in certain areas. Local authorities have been issuing urgent evacuation orders.
"This is not a survivable event for those in coastal or low-lying areas," warned Jared Miller, sheriff of Wakulla County, located along Florida's coast. "Please heed the evacuation orders in place as time is running out."
Emergency declarations have been issued in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Alabama as the storm threatens to expand its path of destruction. In response, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents in North Florida to evacuate as soon as possible, warning of potentially devastating flooding, road closures, and widespread power outages. Although Helene is expected to weaken once it makes landfall, its rapid movement could cause damage across a wide area.
"You’re going to have hurricane-force winds extending at least 50 miles beyond the storm’s eye, and the surge in the Big Bend area will be particularly dangerous," Governor DeSantis said during a press briefing at Florida’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee on Thursday evening.
John Dailey, mayor of Tallahassee, which lies in the storm's direct path, warned that Helene could become the most powerful storm to ever hit the city. "We are looking at unprecedented damage like nothing we’ve ever experienced as a community," Dailey told reporters on Wednesday.
Climate scientists have long warned that global warming is contributing to the increasing frequency and intensity of hurricanes. Although no single storm can be directly attributed to climate change, the warming of the world’s oceans is creating conditions for more severe hurricanes. Much of Helene’s power has come from the extremely warm Gulf of Mexico, where sea temperatures have reached record levels in recent years.
Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher from Colorado State University, said Helene could rank among the largest storms to hit the region in decades. "Since 1988, only three Gulf hurricanes have been larger than what’s forecast for Helene: 2017’s Irma, 2005’s Wilma, and 1995’s Opal," Klotzbach told the Associated Press.
Even before making landfall, Helene had already begun to affect parts of Florida. In Fort Myers Beach, waters surged two feet above normal on Thursday morning. By evening, cities such as Tampa and St. Petersburg were experiencing storm surges up to five feet.
The storm is expected to travel up the southeastern US coast, affecting states from Florida to North Carolina. More than 50 million people are currently under hurricane and tropical storm warnings.
As the storm moved closer to the North Carolina mountains, emergency officials urged residents to seek higher ground. With the area already saturated from previous rainfall, officials are bracing for an additional 9 to 14 inches of rain. Jimmy Brissie, emergency services director for Henderson County near Asheville, said, "We’re seeing flooding in areas where we’ve never seen it before."
Helene’s reach hasn’t been limited to the US It knocked out power to about 160,000 customers in Cuba’s Artemisa province, with an additional 70,000 outages in neighboring Pinar del Río province. Nearly 800 people in Cuba were evacuated from flood-prone areas, according to the local newspaper Guerrillero.
Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula also felt Helene’s force on Wednesday, with the storm flooding streets and toppling trees as it passed offshore near the popular tourist destination of Cancún.
Helene marks the eighth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which began in June. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has forecast an above-average season due to record-high ocean temperatures.
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