Hurricane Helene is forecast to reach catastrophic Category 4 strength before making landfall in Florida's Big Bend area Thursday.
It's a story that's all too familiar for residents near the Panhandle. Helene will be the third hurricane to strike the region in just 13 months, after Hurricane Idalia in August of 2023 and Hurricane Debby just last month .
Helene, however, is forecast to be larger and stronger than recent storms, with up to 20 feet of storm surge expected.
LIVE COVERAGE: Helene expected to become Category 4 ahead of landfall in Florida
"Panama City through Apalachicola through Tallahassee will see some big impacts as this moves on through," said NBC2 chief meteorologist Allyson Rae. "It’s moving so quickly that once it does make landfall, it will quickly diminish its winds and not be a hurricane for very long.”
Forecasters say Helene will rapidly intensify Wednesday night into Thursday, making landfall as a major storm with a surge that could swallow entire homes, a chilling warning that sent residents scrambling for higher ground, closed schools, and led to states of emergency throughout the Southeast.
The state of Florida was providing buses to evacuate people in the state’s Big Bend region and taking them to shelters in Tallahassee on Wednesday.
State emergency officials also were partnering with Uber to take residents to shelters in communities under evacuation orders, as Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that Helene could be as strong as a Category 4 hurricane when it makes landfall late Thursday and then plows through the Tallahassee area.
Airports in St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and Tampa also were planning to close on Thursday, and 62 hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities had evacuated their residents Wednesday in anticipation of the storm. Law enforcement planned to close bridges once winds reached 40 mph at a sustained level, officials said.
