Hurricane Helen slammed into Florida and Georgia, becoming one of the most powerful storms to hit the US. One person died in Florida, and two people died in possible tornadoes in southern Georgia.
Helen remains vulnerable as she moves further inland over Georgia. The center in Miami reported that the storm was moving north at 30 mph (48 kph) at 5 a.m. It made landfall Thursday night as a storm from the Big Bend region of Florida. The Centers warned that this massive "nightmare" storm would bring dangerous winds and rain to much of the southeastern US.
Hurricane Helene weakened to a Category 1 storm early Friday morning as it moved 100 miles inland toward Florida and Georgia. However, hurricane warnings and tropical storm warnings will remain in effect until Friday morning. The National Hurricane Center said the storm will continue to slow and weaken on Friday, turning northwest and moving toward the Tennessee-North Carolina border through Georgia.
Hurricane Helene,impact will be felt far beyond the coastline, with heavy rainfall & strong winds expected to reach the southeastern United States, including Georgia & the Carolinas.Over 70,000 people across four Florida counties have been ordered to evacuate.#Florida Floridians pic.twitter.com/spOckzOa1D
— blue tick (@idraaak) September 27, 2024
Storm-related outages left more than 2 million customers without power in four states as of Friday, according to poweroutages.us. About 1.3 million customers in Florida lost power as Hurricane Helene made landfall and crossed north into Georgia. A reported 596,194 customers were without power in Georgia as of Friday morning. 45,045 customers were without power in North Carolina and 155,428 in South Carolina.
Before it made landfall, the strong winds knocked out power to about 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. The governors of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared states of emergency. It was the first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in Florida's Big Bend region since at least 1859.
.jpg)
