Remnants of deadly Hurricane Helene headed to Michigan after ripping through Florida

(This story was updated to add new information.)

As the remnants of deadly Hurricane Helene head toward Michigan, overnight showers starting at about 6 p.m. Friday and breezy winds, strong enough to blow loose objects around your yard but not quite enough for a wind advisory, are expected.

"Helene is transitioning to more of a low pressure system," National Weather Service meteorologist Megan Varcie in White Lake Township told the Free Press. "But we are going to get some bands of rain moving into the area this weekend."

Showers off and on all weekend also are forecast, she said.

The temperatures should be in the 70s. However, Varcie said, unlike some previous hurricane encounters, the rainfall totals in Michigan from this one are predicted to be only about a quarter inch, and not likely to pose much of a flooding threat, if at all.

Still, there just might be enough rain to keep this September from setting a record as the driest .

In Florida, Helene left a path of destruction, what one county sheriff there described as "a war zone."

The hurricane, which at one point was classified as a Category 4 storm, made landfall late Thursday near Perry, Florida, with 140 mph winds, and brought, in some areas of Florida, record storm surges. It pummeled the state and cut a path across Georgia and the Carolinas.

As a result, a growing number of people have been left homeless and in the dark, with several deaths.

As of 4:45 p.m. Friday, the number of customers without power was at 4.5 million, and the death toll at 33, with stretches of what USA Today called "overturned boats, flattened homes and a vista of floodwater several-feet-deep."

Steinhatchee, a coastal town of about 500 in Florida, just miles from where Helene made landfall, took on 9.63 feet of storm surge, a record.

Hundreds of miles from where Helene came ashore, Pinellas County, Florida, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said: "I would just describe it, having spent the last few hours out there, as a war zone."

He added: "It’s going to take a while before that area gets back to any sense of functionality."

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Remnants of deadly Hurricane Helene headed to Michigan after ripping through Florida