TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Fast-moving Hurricane Helene was advancing Thursday across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, threatening an “unsurvivable” 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.
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.
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 from the storm. The road was largely empty at first light on Thursday, with what drivers there were mostly heading northeast, towards higher ground.
The storm was expected to make landfall in the Big Bend region, where Florida’s panhandle and peninsula meet, according to Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
