Hurricane Helene made landfall on Thursday in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm as forecasters warned of “catastrophic” flooding along the Gulf Coast.
The National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Helene roared ashore around 11.10pm local time near the mouth of the Aucilla River in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast. It had maximum sustained winds estimated at 225km/h (140m/h).
Officials have forecast storm surges of up to six metres (20ft) and warned they could be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Florida’s Apalachee Bay.
Hurricane warnings and flash flood warnings extended far beyond the coast up into northern Georgia and western North Carolina.
Strong winds already cut power to nearly 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. The governors of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and Virginia all declared emergencies in their states.
Two people were reported killed in a possible tornado in south Georgia as the storm approached.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee issued an “extreme wind warning” for the Big Bend as the hurricane approached: “Treat this warning like a tornado warning,” it said in a post on X. “Take shelter in the most interior room and hunker down!”
Beyond Florida, up to 10in (25cm) of rain had fallen in the North Carolina mountains, with up to 14in more possible before the deluge ends, setting the stage for flooding that forecasters warned could be worse than anything seen in the past century.
Heavy rains began falling and winds were picking up in Valdosta, Georgia, near the Florida state line. The weather service said more than a dozen Georgia counties could see hurricane-force winds. In south Georgia, two people were killed when a possible tornado struck a mobile home on Thursday night.
School districts and universities cancelled classes. Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed on Thursday, while cancellations were widespread elsewhere in Florida and beyond.
While Helene will likely weaken as it moves inland, damaging winds and heavy rain were expected to extend to the southern Appalachian Mountains, where landslides were possible, forecasters said.
The hurricane centre warned that much of the region could experience prolonged power outages and flooding. Tennessee was among the states expected to get drenched.
Helene had swamped parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, flooding streets and toppling trees as it passed offshore and brushed the resort city of Cancún.
In western Cuba, Helene knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses as it passed the island. – AP