Thursday updates: Hurricane Helene strengthens, pushes north through gulf

Hurricane Helene is continuing to strengthen as it closes in on the Sunshine State, and it’s poised to become one of the largest gulf hurricanes in decades.

Residents in the Panhandle are bracing for what could become a Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds. Up to 20 feet of storm surge is possible from Carrabelle to the Suwannee River.

In the Tampa Bay area, forecasters expect surge levels between 5 and 8 feet, with up to 12 feet possible in Pasco County.

A stretch from Pasco north along the Big Bend to Mexico Beach in the Panhandle is under a hurricane warning.

A long stretch to the south, including Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, is under a tropical storm warning. The Tampa Bay region is also part of a long swath of coast under a storm surge warning, and a flood watch has been issued for Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties.

Local governments in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties have issued mandatory evacuation orders for some residents, and several area schools, airports and businesses are closed today.

Here are the latest developments.

5 a.m. Helene pushes north nearing Category 2 strength

Helene continued to strengthen as it pushed north Thursday morning.

As of the hurricane center’s 5 a.m. advisory, Helene’s center was about 350 miles southwest of Tampa. It had maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, just shy of Category 2 strength.

The storm was moving north about 12 mph and that speed was expected to increase significantly in the next 24 hours, according to the advisory.

Helene will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico today and cross the Big Bend coast this evening or early Friday morning.

The storm is expected to weaken after landfall, but its fast forward speed “will allow strong, damaging winds, especially in gusts, to penetrate well inland across the southeastern United States, including over the higher terrain of the southern Appalachians,” the advisory said.

Helene will bring “catastrophic winds and storm surge to the northeastern gulf coast” and “preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the advisory said.

4:45 a.m. Big Bend warned of catastrophic surge

As an intensifying Hurricane Helene bore down on Florida, the National Weather Service’s Tallahassee office shared a frank statement Wednesday night:

“There is a danger of catastrophic and unsurvivable storm surge for Apalachee Bay,” it read. “Please, please, please take any evacuation orders seriously!”

Forecasters advised residents to finish their preparations. They warned of “catastrophic wind damage across the Big Bend.”

“Power outages will likely last days, if not weeks,” the statement cautioned.

— Zachary T. Sampson

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