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Friday, September 27, 2024

"Catastrophic" Cat 4 Hurricane Helene Makes Landfall in Florida


Hurricane Helene barreled into the western coast of Florida with dangerous winds, knocking out power for more than a million customers and threatening to unleash deadly flooding across several states.

Bloomberg reports Helene made landfall near Perry with top sustained winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour, according to an advisory from the US National Hurricane Center, making it a Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

The hurricane’s massive size means it’s expected to bring torrential rain and flooding to cities hundreds of miles away, including Atlanta and Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to making landfall, its outer winds extended out 310 miles, with storm causing widespread disruptions to ground and air travel.

Over 1.3 million homes and businesses are without power across southeast US, according to PowerOutage.us, with the vast majority in Florida. The storm also shut in about a quarter of Gulf of Mexico oil production and a fifth of gas activities, according a Thursday notice from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

Helene plowed ashore in Florida’s rural Big Bend region, near the state’s capital Tallahassee that has a population of about 200,000. Governor Ron DeSantis said it would be one of the strongest storms to strike at the city in memory.

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