Hurricane Helene is picking up steam, churning off the coast of the southeastern U.S. and threatening to become a devastating storm that is expected to make landfall late Thursday.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that Helene would reach hurricane status Wednesday and rapidly strengthen over the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The storm’s centre was near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, and heavy rainfall is forecast for the southeastern U.S., with a life-threatening storm surge along the entire west coast of Florida, according to the centre.
The storm is so large that rural areas roughly 145 kilometres north of the Georgia-Florida line are under a hurricane warning. And states as far inland as Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana could see rainfall.
On Tuesday evening, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said that voluntary and mandatory evacuations would begin in 13 counties and that almost the entire state is under a state of emergency declaration.
The University of Tampa also issued a mandatory campus evacuation order Wednesday morning. The school said in a post on the social platform X that “residence halls will be closed after the evacuation concludes, and there will be no entry allowed into residential buildings until they are reopened following the storm.”
AccuWeather forecasters are predicting the storm could reach Category 4 strength in the gulf, with maximum sustained winds ranging between 210 and 250 kilometres per hour. If it makes landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, sustained winds could reach 180 to 210 kilometres per hour.
“Helene will likely cause significant wind damage and flooding well inland from landfall in the Florida Panhandle,” Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell said.
Get daily National news
“The track will bring the storm over Atlanta, Georgia with flooding rains likely across that state and extending into the mountains of Tennessee. Some models predict leftover rain from Helene could even impact parts of southern Ontario this weekend. Thankfully the storm will have weakened to a regular area of low pressure by then.”
Residents fill sandbags at Helen Howarth Park ahead of the possible arrival of hurricane Helene on Sept. 25, 2024 in Pinellas Park, Fla.
Joe Raedel / Getty Images
Life-threatening conditions
President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Florida, and federal authorities positioned generators, food and water, along with search-and-rescue and power restoration teams.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who already issued an emergency for most of the state’s counties, said Wednesday that 12 health-care facilities have evacuated. He urged people to prepare immediately.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper also declared a state of emergency in their respective states on Wednesday.
“Any time a storm is expected to intensify rapidly near landfall, there is a risk that the population won’t take it as seriously as they should,” Farnell said.
“The water in the Gulf of Mexico near the path of Helene is near record levels. That warm water acts as fuel for the storm and will help increase the wind intensity but also the amount of rainfall and the overall size of the storm. Helene will likely intensify from a weak tropical storm to a major hurricane in less than 48 hours. Winds near landfall could be near 200 kilometres per hour.”
Forecasters also warned of possible tornadoes Wednesday night in western Florida and southern Alabama and said the tornado risk would increase Thursday, expanding across Florida and into Georgia and South Carolina.
“There is a danger of life-threatening storm surge along the entire west coast of the Florida Peninsula and Florida Big Bend,” the National Hurricane Center warned, noting storm surges could reach up to 15 feet. “The highest inundation levels are expected along the coast of the Florida Big Bend. Residents in those areas should follow advice given by local officials and evacuate if told to do so.”
The hurricane centre said swells generated by Helene will spread northward toward the west coast of Florida and the northeastern Gulf Coast late Wednesday and Thursday, likely causing “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”
In the mountains of North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina, emergency officials are warning of potentially catastrophic flooding from back-to-back blows of heavy rain.
The National Weather Service is predicting up to 38 centimetres of rain fall over the next three days — first from a front over the region and then from Helene itself as the storm rushes through.
Storm clouds are pictured as a couple walks on the beach ahead of the arrival of tropical storm Helene in Cancun, Quintana Roo state, Mexico on Sept. 24, 2024.
Elizabeth Ruiz / AFP via Getty Images
The impact could be similar to tropical storm Fred in 2021, when a heavy rain event combined with tropical storm rains to cause floods that killed six people and damaged close to 1,000 homes and two dozen bridges.
Airline alerts and advisories
Major airlines in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean have issued travel alerts and advisories, with many warning that flights could be cancelled.
American Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Frontier Airlines and Breeze Airways have all issued travel alerts for passengers, detailing impacts at various airports and guiding customers on how to rebook an impacted flight.
Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines have also issued travel advisories.
Air Canada’s Daily Travel Outlook lists a number of flights to the southern U.S. and Mexico that might be impacted in the coming days, and WestJet is warning passengers that they may also face delays or cancellations.
2024 hurricane season at a glance
Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1.
And while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures, that hasn’t come to fruition, but there’s still lots of time, Farnell said.
“So far activity is actually running below average. One reason for this may be the expansive area of warmer-than-normal water that extends far away from the equator into the North Atlantic,” he told Global News Online.
“These deviations have distorted the flow of tropical waves over Africa and may be leading to less favourable conditions for storm development in the Atlantic. All indications point to a sharp increase in hurricane activity over the next couple weeks as the La Nina intensifies in the Pacific and wind shear weakens in the Atlantic. Helene will not be the last of the threats to land.”
— with files from The Associated Press
