Emergencies Declared in 6 States as Helene Moves North

Hurricane weakened to a tropical storm around 5 hours after it made landfall in Florida
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 27, 2024 5:55 AM CDT
Helene, Still Dangerous, Moves Over Georgia
An NOAA image of Helene moving over the Southeast early Friday.   (NOAA)

Hurricane Helene weakened to a tropical storm early Friday, around five hours after it slammed into Florida's Big Bend region as a Category 4 storm, but authorities warned that conditions remained very dangerous. At least one death was reported in Florida and three in Georgia as the storm moved toward the Atlanta area, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

  • Life-threatening conditions continue: "A turn toward the north is expected this morning, taking the center over central and northeastern Georgia," the National Hurricane Center said in an update at 5am Eastern. "After that, Helene is expected to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley later today and Saturday." The center warned that "life-threatening storm surge, winds, and heavy rains continue."

  • Millions without power: While the full extent of damage won't be known for hours or days, the region's power network has been hit hard, NBC News reports. According to PowerOutage.us, more than 1.2 million people are without power in Florida, along with 840,000 in Georgia, 552,000 in South Carolina, and almost 200,000 in North Carolina.
  • States of emergency: States of emergency have been declared in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina, where Gov. Roy Cooper warned that "Helene is an unusually dangerous storm that threatens to bring heavy rain and potentially catastrophic flooding," CNN reports.

  • It was strongest hurricane to hit storm-battered region: The storm was the strongest on record to hit the Big Bend region, the Pensacola News Journal reports. It made landfall at 11:10pm near Perry, 38 miles away from where Hurricane Debby hit last month and about 30 miles from where Hurricane Idalia made landfall in August last year.
  • Record-breaking storm surge: Parks Camp, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Tallahassee, said the full extent of storm surge was unknown early Friday because some gauges had stopped working. But records were clearly broken along the Gulf Coast, the New York Times reports. In the Tampa Bay area, the Alafia River peaked at 9.4 feet, around 3 feet above the record set during Hurricane Idalia last year.
(More Hurricane Helene stories.)

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