Helen upgraded to Category 2 hurricane

CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (AP) — hurricane helen A “nightmare” scenario of devastating storm surge could occur in northwest Florida, officials warned Thursday and urged residents to heed evacuation orders ahead of the Category 2 storm. The Category 2 storm is expected to cause significant damage hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern United States.

Helen was upgraded to a Category 2 storm Thursday morning and is expected to become a major hurricane, meaning a Category 3 or higher, by the time it makes landfall on the northwestern Florida coast Thursday evening. Tropical storm force winds had already begun to batter the state. Hurricane warnings and flash flood warnings extended far beyond the coast into south-central Georgia as forecasters warned of damaging winds, rain and tornadoes with flash flooding. The governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia all declared states of emergency in their states, as did President Joe Biden in several states.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning that models suggest Helen would be less likely to make landfall further east and hit Tallahassee, the metropolitan area’s capital of about 395,000 people. Ta.

The change focused the storm squarely on the sparsely populated Big Bend region, home to fishing villages and vacation retreats where Florida’s panhandle and peninsula meet. The two-lane highway was dotted with shuttered gas stations, the windows covered with plywood.

Philip Tooke, a commercial fisherman who inherited his father’s business near the region’s Apalachee Bay, plans to ride out the storm by boat, just as he did during Hurricane Michael. “This is how I pay my bills,” Tooke said of his boat. “If I lose that, I have nothing.”

However, many people complied with their obligations. evacuation order It stretched south along the Gulf Coast from the Panhandle in the low-lying areas around Tallahassee, Gainesville, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa, and Sarasota.

Among them was Sharonda Davis. One of several people gathered at a Tallahassee shelter worried about whether his mobile home would be able to withstand the wind. She said the scale of the hurricane is “more scary than anything because it’s the aftermath that we’re going to have to face.”

Federal authorities were dispatching search and rescue teams as the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee predicted. high tide It warned that it could reach up to 20 feet (6 meters) and be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Apalachee Bay. Strong winds and heavy rain also pose a danger, it added.

“Please, please take evacuation orders seriously!” The office said, describing the surge scenario as a “nightmare”.

This stretch of Florida, known as the Forgotten Coast, has been largely spared by the widespread condominium development and commercialization that dominates many of Florida’s beach communities. The region is beloved for its natural wonders, including vast salt marshes, tidal pools, and barrier islands. Dwarf cypress trees in Tate’s Hell State Forest. and Wakulla Springs, considered one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world.

Anthony Godwin, 20, found a gas station outside Crawfordville with a tank still running Thursday morning to fill up before heading west toward his sister’s house in Pensacola. .

“It’s a part of life. If you live here, you risk losing everything in a bad storm,” said Godwin, who lives about a half-mile from the water in the coastal town of Panacea. Ta. meanwhile 2018 Hurricane MichaelGodwin said the water reached the end of her parents’ driveway.

School districts and several universities along Florida’s Gulf Coast have canceled classes. Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed Thursday, with cancellations spreading to other parts of the state and beyond.

Helen was about 255 miles (405 kilometers) southwest of Tampa on Thursday morning, moving north-northeast at 22 kilometers per hour with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (165 kilometers per hour). Forecasters expected it to become a Category 3 hurricane or higher, with wind speeds of more than 110 miles per hour (177 kilometers per hour).

Helen is likely to weaken as it moves inland, but damaging winds are expected to extend into the southern Appalachians, where landslides are possible, forecasters said. The center issued a tropical storm warning as far north as North Carolina, warning that prolonged power outages and flooding were possible in many parts of the region.

Helen submerged parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, flooding roads and toppling trees as it passed offshore and brushed past the resort city of Cancun.

storm Formed in the Caribbean on Tuesday. In western Cuba, more than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power as Helen passed through the island.

Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said Helen is expected to be one of the largest storms to hit the region in years. Since 1988, only three Gulf hurricanes have exceeded Helen’s predicted size: Irma in 2017, Wilma in 2005, and Opal in 1995, he said.

Hurricane conditions are expected for areas 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the Georgia-Florida border. More than half of Georgia’s public school districts and several universities have canceled classes.

For Atlanta, Helen could be the worst blow to a major city in the Inland South in 35 years, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepard.

More than 200 miles (320 kilometers) south, near Valdosta, Georgia, Joe Overby boards up a warehouse building as he prepares to weather the hurricane, keeping an eye on oak trees damaged by Idalia last year. is. “I’m worried that they’re going to be depressed this time,” Overby said.

Helen is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts this year’s Atlantic hurricane season will be above average. Due to record-breaking sea temperatures.

In further storm activity, Tropical Storm Isaac formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday and is expected to strengthen as it moves east across the open ocean, potentially becoming a hurricane by the end of the week, forecasters said. Officials said swells and winds could affect parts of Bermuda and eventually the Azores by the end of the week.

In the Pacific, Former Hurricane John It became a tropical storm on Wednesday and strengthened back into a hurricane by Thursday morning, threatening areas on Mexico’s west coast with flash floods and landslides. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday raised John’s death toll to five as communities along the country’s Pacific coast prepare for the storm to make landfall again.

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Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalist Seth Borenstein in New York; Jeff Amy of Atlanta; Danica Cotto of San Juan, Puerto Rico; Andrea Rodriguez in Havana. Mark Stevenson and Maria Bertha of Mexico City; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.