Live updates: Hurricane Helene crashes into Florida as devastating Cat 4

The wait for Hurricane Helene’s landfall is over.

Residents of Florida’s Big Bend region confronted a near-midnight landfall of the category 4 storm’s wall late Thursday night. By early Friday morning, nearly 1 million Floridians were without power.

In Tampa Bay, the storm unleashed record storm surge, with communities from the beaches to St. Petersburg’s Shore Acres neighborhood inundated with flood water.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect from the Florida Keys to the Panhandle.

The toll wrought by Helene would be laid bare as night turned to dawn.

12:10 a.m.: Helene almost in Georgia

The worst of Hurricane Helene ripped through the Florida panhandle in the span of about an hour.

The National Hurricane Center reported in a midnight update that Helene’s “catastrophic winds” would soon hit southeast Georgia.

The government forecasters urged people in the are to stay inside even amid the relative calm of the storm’s eye.

12:01 a.m.: A recap of Thursday’s action

On Thursday, Helene left the Tampa Bay with record storm surge.

In St. Petersburg, the city had to cut power to a reclamation facility, meaning homes in the northeast of the city would have to refrain from flushing toilets or showering for days.

More than a million Floridians were left without power, including hundreds of thousands in Tampa Bay.

After strengthening all day Thursday, forecasters expected Helene to weaken after making landfall. But not before inundating Florida’s Big Bend region — and beyond.

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