The state of Florida has issued a number of mandatory evacuation orders as Hurricane Helene strengthened over the Atlantic ocean.
As of Thursday morning, the storm had grown into a category 2 hurricane and is expected to make landfall on Florida’s Big Bend later in the evening.
Officials have urged people to heed evacuation orders, warning that the storm will bring “life-threatening” weather to the region with destructive winds and significant storm surge.
It is expected to make landfall as a category 4 hurricane south of Tallahassee, a city that has not seen a storm of this magnitude in recent memory.
Hurricane Helene has been described as “catastrophic” and “unsurvivable” by officials, who warned that it will bring with it a storm surge of up to 20 ft above ground level in some areas of the Big Bend.
“This forecast, if realised, is a nightmare surge scenario for Apalachee Bay,” the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee warned in a bulletin.
Michael Brennan, the director of the National Hurricane Centre (NHC), said on Thursday that residents under evacuation orders still have time to get out, but said that “conditions are going to deteriorate quickly.”
Power outages, tree damage and powerful winds that could tear roofs off of structures are expected, Mr Brennan said, as well as significant rainfall of up to 18 inches that could bring flash flooding in some areas.
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