Hurricane Helene Makes Landfall as Category 4 Storm, Threatening 'Catastrophic' Weather in Florida and Beyond

Hurricane Helene has officially made landfall in Florida's Big Bend, along the Gulf of Mexico, as a Category 4 storm, federal weather officials said.

The storm currently has sustained winds of 140 mph and is the strongest storm to hit Florida's Big Bend area in recorded history. It made landfall at about 11:10 p.m. ET, about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Fla., reports the National Hurricane Center.

"Helene stands toe-to-toe with any of the threats that Florida has faced over the past 10 years or indeed really over hurricane history," Ryan Truchelut, a meteorologist and hurricane forecaster, previously told USA Today.

Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, told CNN Helene will likely be a "historic inland flooding event," adding, "Historically speaking, 50% of lives lost are in a setup like this. We’re probably going to lose a lot of lives in this setup with this much flooding potential."

Before Helene made landfall, the National Hurricane Center warned it could bring “life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rains” to much of Florida and parts of the southeastern U.S.

The federal government has predicted damaging winds and rains — as well as the risk of flash and urban flooding and landslides — will stretch as far as the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia and the Carolinas through Friday, Sept. 27.

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The rainfall could hit 20 inches in some areas, weather officials said. Tornadoes are another risk.

The coast of Florida will be particularly vulnerable to storm surge from the ocean, reaching as high as 20 feet above ground level.

"After landfall [in the Big Bend], Helene is expected to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley on Friday and Saturday," an advisory from the National Hurricane Center states.

As of Thursday, Sept. 26, Helene, after hitting land, is set to move north across Georgia and into eastern Tennessee by Friday afternoon, then reach western Kentucky by Saturday.

President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency for Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 24, and ordered “Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Tropical Storm Helene beginning on September 23, 2024, and continuing.” 

That same day, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in a post on X that the state had almost 18,000 linemen staged along with available search and rescue and roadway clearing crews.