Evacuations have been ordered in several Florida counties. With a combined population of over 70,000, four of them—Wakulla, Franklin, Taylor, and Liberty—have issued orders for all of their citizens to depart. Wakulla County Sheriff Jared Miller alerted locals on Thursday to the possibility of “catastrophic” storm surges in the area.
Miller wrote on Facebook, “Those in coastal or low lying areas will not be able to survive this event.” “In recorded history, no storm with this intensity has ever struck Wakulla.”
On Friday and Saturday after making landfall, Helene is predicted to slow down and turn northwest over the Tennessee Valley. First to be struck is Florida, but other states are expecting a serious blow.
Senior director of forecasting operations at AccuWeather Dan DePodwin stated, “Helene is a very dangerous hurricane and could become a ‘once-in-a-generation storm’ across western South Carolina and North Carolina, as well as northern and eastern Georgia.”….According to Phil Klotzbach, a senior hurricane scientist at Colorado State University, Helene would be the first known Category 4 storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since records first started in 1851 if the storm keeps up its current intensity until landfall.
Forecasters at AccuWeather have estimated that Helene will continue to have Category 4 strength winds—130 to 155 mph—until it makes landfall, which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has stated is anticipated at approximately 11 p.m.
