Hurricane Helene makes historic landfall in Florida killing at least one

Helene makes historic landfall: Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm. It is the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in the Big Bend, Florida, USA. 

Helene was one of the most powerful storms to strike the Gulf of Mexico in the last century, with winds that could stretch nearly the distance between Indianapolis and Washington, DC.

Storm (the height at which water rises above normal levels) could reach up to 20 feet along Florida's Big Bend. The National Weather Service warns of a "non-survivable" storm surge in Apalachee Bay.

Helene has already caused school and business closures and flight cancellations. Officials have warned that the storm's devastating wind damage could cause power outages that could last for days, if not weeks.

Hurricane Helen has flooded parts of Mexico and is already bringing tropical storm conditions to Florida, where one person died Thursday night when a sign fell on a car on a Tampa highway during high winds and rain, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. 

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on social media that "anyone along the coast of Florida's Big Bend is at risk for a potentially catastrophic storm surge."

The NHC upgraded Helen, which is expected to make landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida around 11 p.m. local time (3 a.m. Friday GMT), to a Category 4 "very dangerous" storm with sustained winds of nearly 125 mph (209 kph).

"We expect a storm surge that could result in flooding of 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meters) above ground level," NHC Director Mike Brennan said in a video conference.

"It will reach the rooftops of two-story buildings. "It will create a scenario where we really cannot survive, even here in this part of the Florida coast," he said.

Brennan said the waves that accompany the hurricane "can destroy homes, displace cars, and cause water levels to rise quickly."

In Florida, where a state of emergency has been declared, heavy rains have flooded roads, closed schools and airports, and left about 698,700 homes and businesses without power.

Florida authorities are providing buses to evacuate people from the Big Bend region, home to about 832,000 people, to emergency shelters in the state capital, Tallahassee. 

More than 55 million people in the U.S. were under some sort of weather warning due to Hurricane Helen.

States of emergency were also declared in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Alabama, and the NHC warned that much of the Southeast could experience power outages, fallen trees and severe flooding.

In the southern Appalachians, the National Weather Service warned that the region could experience landslides and flooding the likes of which it has not seen in over 100 years.

"This will be one of the most significant weather events to occur in the western part of the region in modern times," it said.

According to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, only three hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico since 1988 have exceeded Helen's projected strength: Irma in 2017, Wilma in 2005 and Opal in 1995.

Sources: News Agencies