Alligator Point, United States:
‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Helene made landfall in the US state of Florida on Thursday, with officials warning of ‘unsurvivable’ conditions and a potentially catastrophic storm surge high enough to flood a two-storey house.
More than a million people were without power and roads were already flooded ahead of what is expected to be one of the biggest storms to hit the Gulf of Mexico in decades.
Fast-moving Helene strengthened into an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane on Thursday, with its eye making landfall near the city of Perry at around 11:10 pm local time (03:10 GMT on Friday), the US National Hurricane Center said.
It reached winds of 140 miles per hour as it passed over warm Gulf waters and began hitting the Big Bend area south of Tallahassee.
“EVERYONE along the Florida Big Bend coast is at risk of potentially catastrophic storm surge,” the NHC said on social media.
Tampa and Tallahassee airports are closed and parts of St. Petersburg, downtown Tampa, Sarasota, Treasure Island and other cities on Florida’s west coast are already underwater.
About 1,036,553 homes and businesses were without power, according to tracking site PowerOutage.us.
“We expect flooding from a storm surge of 15 to 20 feet above ground level,” NHC Director Mike Brennan said. “That’s the top of a second-story building. “Once again, here in this part of the Florida coastline, a truly insurmountable scenario is about to play out.”
The accompanying waves “could destroy houses, move cars, and the water level will rise very quickly,” Brennan added.
US President Joe Biden has called on people to heed official evacuation warnings.
“I urge everyone in and near Helene’s path to listen to local officials and heed evacuation warnings,” he said. “Take this seriously and be safe.”
‘I’m stuck with them’
Authorities in Florida’s Taylor County asked residents who didn’t heed mandatory evacuation warnings to write their names on their bodies in permanent marker to help with identification if they were killed.
In Alligator Point, a coastal town on a picturesque peninsula in the storm’s path, David Wesolowski was taking no chances.
“I just came to button up a few things before it gets too windy,” the 37-year-old real estate agent told AFP as he boarded up his house on stilts.
“If it stays the course, this will look different next, that’s for sure,” he said.
Patrick Riickert refused to leave his small wooden house in Crawfordville, a town of 5,000 a few miles inland.
Most residents fled, but Riickert, his wife and five grandchildren were “not going anywhere,” the 58-year-old insisted.
“I’m going to hunker down” and ride out the hurricane, as he did in 2018 when deadly Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 megastorm, blew through the Florida panhandle.
At a gas station in Panacea, John Luper said he reluctantly stayed put because his mother and brother refused to flee to higher ground.
“They’re not going away,” he said, as he filled jerry cans with fuel. “I’m stuck with them.”
The NHC warned of up to 20 inches of rain in some places and potentially life-threatening flooding, as well as numerous landslides in the southern Appalachians.
The National Weather Service said the region could be hit extremely hard, with flooding not seen in more than a century.
“This will be one of the most significant weather events to occur in the western parts of the region in modern times,” it warned.
Tornado warnings went out in northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
More than 55 million Americans were under some form of weather alert or alert due to Hurricane Helene.
‘Multi-state event’
“This will be a multi-state event with the potential for significant impacts from Florida all the way to Tennessee,” Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters.
Vice President Kamala Harris said the White House was watching.
“The president and I are obviously monitoring the matter and the situation very closely, and we urge everyone watching at this time to take this storm very seriously,” she told reporters.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis mobilized the National Guard and ordered thousands of personnel to prepare for search and rescue operations.
He warned that the powerful storm would be dangerous and urged everyone to take precautions.
“We have no control over how strong this hurricane is going to be. We can’t control the track of the hurricane, but what you can control is what you can do to give yourself the best chance of surviving this. in a way that will be safe,” DeSantis said.
Helene could become the most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in more than a year — and almost certainly the largest, at nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) across.
Scientists say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)