Fueled by extraordinarily heat water within the Gulf of Mexico because it quickly intensified, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a strong Class 4 storm alongside Florida’s Massive Bend coast late Thursday evening, then shortly misplaced punch and was downgraded to a tropical storm inside hours, in response to the Nationwide Hurricane Heart.

The middle described Helene as a “very harmful and enormous main hurricane” with “damaging hurricane winds and catastrophic storm surge” when it got here ashore, and stated Helene was nonetheless inflicting a “life-threatening” storm surge, sturdy winds and heavy rain” hours later.

The storm was a serious hurricane when it made landfall close to Perry, Florida, at 11:10 p.m. Jap Time Thursday with most sustained winds of 140 miles per hour.

As of 11 a.m. EDT, Helene was roughly 30 miles southwest of Bryson Metropolis, North Carolina and was racing north at 32 mph, the Miami-based hurricane middle stated. It was packing most sustained winds of 45 mph.

Path of Hurricane Helene

A map from the Nationwide Hurricane Heart confirmed Helene heading north by means of Georgia early Friday, with its impacts being felt throughout South Carolina and components of North Carolina as properly.

After landfall, Helene was “anticipated to show northwestward and decelerate over the Tennessee Valley on Friday and Saturday,” the hurricane middle stated.

In northwest Florida, storm surge was a serious concern as Helene arrived. Forecasters anticipated the storm surge to succeed in 5 to 10 toes from the Florida’s Aucilla River to Chassahowitzka, Florida. Different areas might see wherever from 3 to 7 toes of water, the hurricane middle warned.

Because the storm strikes on, components of the Southeast and Southern Appalachians might see complete rain accumulations of 6 to 12 inches, with some areas getting as much as 20 inches, forecasters stated, bringing flooding throughout the area and a risk of landslides in steep terrain.

“We have already seen double-digit rainfall in western North Carolina and we might nonetheless get one other half-foot or extra. Meaning there is a threat of catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding,” meteorologist Stephanie Abrams of The Climate Channel stated on “CBS Mornings” Friday, including that flooding might stretch all the best way to the Mississippi River. 

“All of this water will trigger rivers to rise, a few of which might crush their data by a number of toes,” Abrams stated.

Forward of its landfall, Helene quickly intensified over the record-warm waters within the Gulf of Mexico. The excessive ocean temperature stage at this location have been made 200 instances extra possible on account of local weather change, in response to evaluation by Local weather Central.

“That is the fourth hurricane to make landfall on the Gulf Coast this 12 months. This has occurred solely 5 different instances in historical past,” Abrams famous.