Fast-moving Hurricane Helene was advancing Thursday across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, threatening a “catastrophic” storm surge in northwestern parts of the state as well as damaging winds, rains and flash floods hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern U.S., forecasters said. The storm was upgraded to a Category 2 storm Thursday morning.
Landfall is expected by evening. The governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared emergencies in their states. In the Pacific, former Hurricane John strengthened Thursday morning back into a hurricane as it threatened areas of Mexico’s western coast with flash flooding and mudslides.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Isaac formed Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean and was expected to strengthen as it moves eastward, possibly becoming a hurricane by the end of the week, forecasters said. Isaac was about 690 miles (1,115 kilometers) northeast of Bermuda with top sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was moving east at about 12 mph (19 kph).
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Here's the latest:
SARASOTA, Fla. — Conditions along the coastal areas near Sarasota were beginning to deteriorate early Thursday afternoon, officials said.
The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office posted photos on social media showing water lapping over a road at Nora Patterson Park, which is on the northern tip of Siesta Key.
Sarasota is about 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Tampa on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
VALDOSTA, Ga. — Some businesses began closing early Thursday afternoon in Valdosta, Georgia, near the Florida line. The inland city was under a hurricane warning, with forecasters predicting dangerous winds late Thursday as Helene’s center churns northward through southern Georgia.
Employees of a Walmart in Valdosta were turning away customers in the parking lot before 1:30 p.m. Red and blue pallets stacked high blocked the store’s entrances.
Margaret Freenman, 67, and her two grandchildren found the store closed when they showed up to buy a few extra snacks before Helene arrives. Freeman said she’d already stocked up on essentials.
Freeman has lived in Valdosta her entire life and said hurricanes have only seemed like a real threat in recent years.
Hurricane Idalia uprooted a tree that punched a hole in Freeman’s roof and broke some windows when it tore through Valdosta a year ago. Tropical Storm Debby knocked out electricity for thousands in August.
“It’s a wakeup call for everybody,” said Freeman, who planned to ride out the latest storm again at home.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay has closed as wind gusts have reached 60 mph, the Florida Highway Patrol said Thursday afternoon.
CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. — The sheriff of a coastal Florida county in the path of Hurricane Helene said Thursday that his community is in for “a rough 24 hours and a long recovery.”
Wakulla County Sheriff Jared Miller said the county likely has a long road ahead of it once the storm passes after making an expected landfall Thursday night. The storm could grow to a Category 4 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico before landing in the Big Bend area where Wakulla County is located, with a storm surge up to 20 feet (6 km).
“I have lived here my entire life and have never witnessed some of the storm predictions we are currently seeing,” Miller said in a social media post. “I hope that I am mistaken.”
The sheriff urged residents to stay off local roads, including evacuees who may be itching to return to see the conditions of their homes after the storm passes through.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Emergency officials in the North Carolina mountains are warning that heavy rains before Hurricane Helene even arrives have set the stage for potentially historic flooding.
The French Broad River and Swannanoa River, which run in and around Asheville and then south, are already predicted to break 100-year-old records Friday into Saturday. The flooding could be worse than in 2004 when water rose to car rooftops in Biltmore Village just outside the gates of the historic Biltmore estate built by George Vanderbilt.
“This is a potentially historic event with catastrophic, deadly consequences. This is not a maybe. This is on track to happen. So please, please take every precaution to take yourself out of harm’s way,” Buncombe County Emergency Services Director Taylor Jones said.
Seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain has already fallen in Asheville while some other areas have seen even more. All of the water is flowing downhill out of the mountains.
Mudslides are also a danger as swiftly flowing rivers and runoffs cut their own channels and bring down rocks, trees and other debris, said Andrew Kimball, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Greer, South Carolina.
WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator Deanne Criswell said Thursday that the pre-landfall emergency declarations for Hurricane Helene are important to help states have the resources they need to open shelters and get people to safety.
She also noted changes to Small Business Administration policies to make it easier for people including those who work from home to qualify for help.
WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator Deanne Criswell said the increased severity of extreme weather has led her agency to put more resources in place ahead of landfall by Hurricane Helene.
The FEMA head warned about flash flooding from rain and said it’s better to have more search and rescue teams ready to help people than to have too few teams.
WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Deanne Criswell said her agency has been preparing for Hurricane Helene for “a number of days” and they began moving resources into Florida on Monday.
Speaking at Thursday’s White House briefing, Criswell said she anticipates the storm will be a multi-state event with impacts from Florida to Tennessee. She added that there are 1,100 people distributed across the federal government to address any damage from Helene and that an additional 700 personnel are ready to provide support after the storm hits.
She added that people in the hurricane’s path should listen to local government officials about whether to evacuate or shelter in place.
Criswell said she will travel to the region on Friday at President Joe Biden’s direction to assess the situation.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents in western and central counties to prepare for heavy rain and “potentially catastrophic flooding” Thursday night and Friday from Hurricane Helene.
Speaking at a Thursday morning briefing, Cooper said the mountains also likely will see landslides, river flooding and debris flows. And cities not necessarily in Helene’s direct path, like Charlotte and Asheville, could see flash flooding, he said.
“The impacts of Helene should not be ignored and all North Carolinians should remain informed,” said state emergency management director Will Ray. Areas of western North Carolina could receive from 9 to 14 inches (23 to 36 centimeters) of rain, with amounts reaching 20 inches (51 centimeters) possible, Ray said.
Cooper said some shelters were already open and 175 National Guard service members were activated to help in the storm response.
Additionally, he said people in the mountains and foothills who don’t have to travel shouldn’t, the governor said.
“I’m concerned about our mountain areas, seeing the amount of rain that’s already on the ground and this storm coming,” he said. “I’ve seen firsthand the devastation that it can cause.”
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador raised the death toll from Hurricane John to five Thursday as the communities along the country’s Pacific coast prepared for the storm to make a second landfall.
The Georgia Emergency Management Agency said nine shelters were opening for Hurricane Helene, mostly in the southern parts of the state. The state has also opened its state parks to evacuees, saying it’s welcoming people and pets, including horses.
Parks officials say they are currently housing 15 evacuees.
President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for North Carolina on Thursday, according to the White House. The approval follows one issued for Georgia earlier in the day and one issued for Florida earlier in the week.
Federal Emergency Management Agency teams were already deployed to Florida and Alabama to support local first responders. Federal authorities have positioned generators, food and water, along with search-and-rescue and power restoration teams.
ST. MARKS, Fla. — As Hurricane Helene barreled toward Florida’s Big Bend, Philip Tooke sat in a rocking chair on the back deck of his fish house overlooking the St. Marks River, watching and waiting.
A commercial fisherman who took over the business his father founded in the town of St. Marks, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) north of Apalachee Bay, Tooke plans to ride out this storm like he did Hurricane Michael and others — on his boat.
“This has been my livelihood. This is what pays my bills,” Tooke said of his boats. “If I lose that, I don’t have anything.”
Tooke said he’ll wait until the water is about knee-deep and then he, his brother Richard and some of their employees will hunker down on the La Victoria, the Jenny Lee and the Susan D, loosening the lines that fasten the boats to the dock as the water rises, in the hopes they won’t be battered apart.
St. Marks sits at the confluence of the St. Marks and Wakulla Rivers and is known to flood during storm events. On Thursday morning, water was already beginning to cover Riverside Drive, which runs through downtown.
VALDOSTA, Ga. — Rain drizzled Thursday morning outside a fire station where residents filled sandbags in the unincorporated Clyattville community outside Valdosta near the Georgia-Florida line. Helene was forecast to pass nearby as a hurricane Thursday night.
Jose Gonzales and his 14-year-old son, Jadin, shoveled sand into bags and piled them into the back of a pickup truck. Though their home is inland, Gonzales said heavy rains during Hurricane Idalia a year ago got blown under his doors and cracked a window. Some of the carpet inside got so wet he had to replace it.
For Helene, he planned to fortify his doors in hopes of preventing it from happening again.
“If it blows sideways, we might get more water inside the house,” Gonzales said. “It’s just mother nature.”
President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Georgia on Thursday morning after issuing one for Florida earlier in the week.
Federal authorities have positioned generators, food and water, along with search-and-rescue and power restoration teams. And Florida officials have sent more than 130 generators to gas stations to ensure that people will be able to fill their cars after the storm, and extra fuel has been shipped into Florida, DeSantis said.
MEXICO CITY — As John became a hurricane for the second time, rain continued to pelt the Pacific coast state of Guerrero in Mexico where the storm caused three deaths in its first landfall earlier this week.
Authorities in Guerrero reported flooding in some low-lying neighborhoods in Acapulco. Soldiers and National Guard officers were posted outside stores in Acapulco to prevent the kind of widespread looting that broke out in the resort after Hurricane Otis hit last October.
VALDOSTA, Ga. — Joe Overby, 67, and his family were preparing Thursday to ride out the hurricane at their home in the unincorporated Clyattville community outside Valdosta, Georgia, where Hurricane Idalia a year ago toppled trees and damaged about 1,000 homes.
Overby boarded up the open front of a large storage building next to his house. He had a generator to power his refrigerator and freezer and planned to move cars to his neighbor’s yard across the street where there were no trees.
He said Idalia last year bent some sturdy oaks in his backyard, exposing the roots.
“I’m afraid this time they’re going to come down,” Overby said, adding that he planned to hunker down at home overnight with his wife, two children and four dogs.
“This old house was built in 1903,” he said. “I think it’ll hold up. You can’t even pull the nails out, the wood is so hard.”
State officials warned Florida residents of the potential risks they face even after Hurricane Helene rips through the northern part of the state, which was expected Thursday night.
Driving on roadways and tree branches falling on homes were the two biggest hazards during storms, said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a news conference in Tallahassee.
Drivers should stay off roads because of potential flooding and people should stay in the interior parts of their homes if they hear tree limbs snapping, which sounds like fireworks or a gun being fired, officials said.
“It will likely be dark by the time this storm passes,” DeSantis said. “Do not try to do any work in the dark. You don’t know what hazards are out there. The sun is going to come out. You’re going to have time to take stock of this.”
State emergency officials have sent more than 130 generators to gas stations to ensure that people will be able to fill their cars after the storm, and extra fuel has been shipped into Florida, DeSantis said.
“We haven’t seen fuel shortages, only some lines,” the governor said. “So we feel good about the fuel situation.”
Associated Press journalists are stationed across parts of Florida and Georgia to report on Hurricane Helene and the storm’s aftermath.
Photographer Gerald Herbert and videographer Stephen Smith are in Crawfordville, Florida, which is south of Tallahassee in what’s known as the Big Bend region. Reporters Brendan Farrington and Kate Payne are reporting from Tallahassee, the state’s capital.
The AP also has photographer Mike Stewart, video journalist Sharon Johnson and reporter Russ Bynum reporting from Valdosta, Georgia, which is about 72 miles northeast of Tallahassee, just across the state line.
Helene knocked out power in western Cuba as it brushed past the island, affecting some 160,000 customers in the province of Artemisa and another 70,000 in the neighboring province of Pinar del Río.
The hurricane also forced some 800 people in the region to evacuate flood-prone zones, according to Guerrillero, a local newspaper.
Pictures posted on social media showed overflowing rivers that turned some streets into creeks as people traveled by boat with their personal belongings.
On the Isle of Youth, some 25 hectares (62 acres) of tobacco seedbeds of export quality were damaged, said Raúl Fernández, director of a local company, adding that an anticipated planting schedule for October could be delayed. In addition, some 3,000 customers, about 12% of the municipality, were without power.
The Cuban government was still assessing overall damage on Thursday.
Airports in the Florida cities of Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed Thursday, while more than half the flights to airports in Sarasota and Fort Myers were canceled Thursday morning, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.
More than a hundred flights in and out of the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta had also been canceled while more than 100 others were delayed, but that’s a relatively small fraction of flights there. Airports in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Florida cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando were seeing a smaller number of delays and cancellations
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A shift in models nudging Hurricane Helene’s projected landfall further east lessens the chances for a direct hit on Florida’s capital city if that trajectory holds, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning.
The shift placed the storm closer to the sparsely-populated Big Bend area where two hurricanes in the past year made landfall — Idalia in August 2023 and Debby last August. The Tallahassee metro area has a population of almost 393,000 residents.
Helene was expected to make landfall Thursday night, possibly as a Category 4 storm.
“That’s significant when you are talking about Tallahassee because yesterday we were talking about an eye wall that’s on the western part of the city,” DeSantis said at a news conference from the state’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee.
The Tallahassee area hadn’t seen a major hurricane of Helene’s expected magnitude at landfall in recent memory, the governor said.
“The more the track shifts east, the better off for Tallahassee,” DeSantis said.
Even the building where Florida’s emergency response to Hurricane Helene is organized will be put to the test when the fast-moving storm plows through Tallahassee late Thursday, possibly as a Category 4 hurricane, state officials said.
The building that houses the state’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee has walls that were built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. But during construction in the 1990s, there wasn’t enough money to ensure the roof could withstand a hurricane that strong, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. Backup plans were in place should there be any problems with the building.
“It should be fine, but we’ll see,” DeSantis said. “We’ve taken precautions just in case something happens to be able to continue the continuity without any major interruption.”
MEXICO CITY — Former Hurricane John restrengthened into a hurricane on Thursday morning as it threatened areas of Mexico’s western coast with flash flooding and mudslides. Officials posted hurricane warnings for southwestern Mexico.
John hit the country’s southern Pacific coast late Monday, killing at least two people, triggering mudslides, and damaging homes and trees. It grew into a Category 3 hurricane in a matter of hours and made landfall east of Acapulco. It reemerged over the ocean after weakening inland.
PANACEA, Fla. — Rain was beginning to blow in the predawn darkness Thursday along coastal U.S. Highway 98, which winds through countless fishing villages and vacation hideaways along Florida’s Big Bend.
Shuttered gas stations dotted the two-lane highway, their windows boarded up with plywood to protect against the storm. The road was largely empty at first light, with what drivers there mostly heading northeast, towards higher ground.
This stretch of Florida known as the Forgotten Coast has been largely spared by the widespread condo development and commercialization that dominates so many of Florida’s beach communities. The sparsely populated region is loved for its natural wonders — the vast stretches of salt marshes, tidal pools and barrier islands; the dwarf cypress trees of Tate’s Hell State Forest; and Wakulla Springs, considered one of the world’s largest and deepest freshwater springs.
MIAMI — Helene was upgraded Thursday morning to a Category 2 storm and is expected to be a major hurricane — meaning a Category 3 or higher — when it makes landfall on Florida’s northwestern coast Thursday evening.
As of early Thursday, hurricane warnings and flash flood warnings extended far beyond the coast up into south-central Georgia. The governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared emergencies in their states.
MIAMI — Tropical Storm Isaac formed Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean and was expected to strengthen as it moves eastward, possibly becoming a hurricane by the end of the week, forecasters said.
Isaac was about 690 miles (1,115 kilometers) northeast of Bermuda with top sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was moving east at about 12 mph (19 kph).
Isaac is the ninth named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts between 17 and 25 named storms, with as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
Eric Midili, 45, examines and walks around a flooded street around the Sunset Park neighborhood as Hurricane Helene makes its way toward the Florida panhandle on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
A sign closing down a road is posted around the Sunset Park neighborhood as Hurricane Helene makes its way toward the Florida panhandle on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Vera Kelly, of Tallahassee, lies on a cot after evacuating to a hurricane shelter with her grandchildren and great grandchildren, at Fairview Middle School, ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall here today, in Leon County, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Vera Kelly, of Tallahassee, lies on a cot after evacuating to a hurricane shelter with her grandchildren and great grandchildren, at Fairview Middle School, ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall here today, in Leon County, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Bobby Joe Edwards, Sr., and his wife Lillie Edwards, of Walkalla, Fla., and their grandson Tavarrious Dixon, rest inside a hurricane evacuation shelter at Fairview Middle School, ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall here today, in Leon County, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Terry Lana, of Woodville, Fla., who lives in a mobile home, evacuates to a shelter at Fairview Middle School, ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall here today, in Leon County, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Perry Kalip and his mother Martha Kale, of Tallahassee, arrive at a a hurricane evacuation shelter at Fairview Middle School, ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall here today, in Leon County, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Jose Gonzales and his son Jadin Gonzales, 14, fill sand bags ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall Thursday evening, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Clyattville, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Jose Gonzales and his son Jadin Gonzales, 14, fill sand bags ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall Thursday evening, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Clyattville, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Paulette McLin takes in the scene outside their summer home ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall Thursday evening, in Alligator Point, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Jerry McCullen, top of ladder left, and Carson Baze, top of ladder right, put plywood over the windows of a house ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall Thursday evening, in Alligator Point, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Will Marx cleans up remodeling debris in advance of Tropical Storm Helene, expected to become a hurricane before landfall, in Panacea, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Crum’s Mini Mall in the coastal town of Panacea, Fla., is boarded up Thursday Sept. 26, 2024 ahead of Hurricane Helene’s expected arrival. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
A man removes water from a boat while talking to neighbors after the passage of Hurricane Helene in Guanimar, Artemisa province, Cuba, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man pushes his bicycle through a flooded street after Hurricane Helene passed through Guanimar, Artemisa province, Cuba, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
People traverse a flooded street with a horse-drawn carriage after the passage of Hurricane Helene in Guanimar, Artemisa province, Cuba, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A shopper passes by empty shelves in the bread section of a Walmart, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024 in Tallahassee, Fla. Grocery stores and gas stations were seeing heavy traffic in advance of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall Thursday night in the Big Bend area. (AP Photo/Phil Sears)
A shopper checks out nearly empty shelves in the lunch meat section of a Walmart, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024 in Tallahassee, Fla. Grocery stores and gas stations were seeing heavy traffic in advance of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall Thursday night in the Big Bend area. (AP Photo/Phil Sears)
This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Helene advancing across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (NOAA via AP)
Bob Danzey, a resident, walks at the waters edge ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall here today, in Shell Point Beach, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
