Helene, now a major hurricane, menaces Florida with ‘unsurvivable’ storm surge

TAMPA, Florida: Driving rain flooded roadways and closed down airports in Florida as an intensifying Hurricane Helene marched toward the state’s panhandle region, bringing the threat of a potentially deadly storm surge to much of the coastline.
The storm became a major Category 3 hurricane on Thursday (Sep 26) afternoon with sustained winds near 193 kph, the National Hurricane Center said, and was expected to continue gaining power. Helene was forecast to make landfall in the evening in Florida’s Big Bend region, possibly as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds in excess of 209 kph.
Officials pleaded with residents in the path of the storm to heed mandatory evacuation orders or face life-threatening conditions. Helene’s surge – the wall of seawater pushed on land by hurricane-force winds – could rise to as much as 6.1 meters in some spots, as tall as a two-story house, the center’s director, Michael Brennan, said in a video briefing.
Storm surge was forecast to reach 4.6 to 6.1 meters in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Panhandle region where the storm is expected to come ashore.
Numerous evacuations were ordered along Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Sarasota and Charlotte counties.
Pinellas County officials ordered evacuations of long-term healthcare facilities near the coast, including nursing homes, assisted living centers and hospitals.
Not everyone heeded the evacuation orders. In coastal Dunedin, Florida, west of Tampa, state ferry boat operator Ken Wood, 58, planned to ride out the storm with his 16-year-old cat, Andy.