The storm made landfall in the sparsely-populated Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways in Florida’s Panhandle.
ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 26: People are splashed by churning surf from Tampa Bay as Hurricane Helene passes offshore on September 26, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Helene is forecast to become a major hurricane, bringing the potential for deadly storm surges, flooding rain, and destructive hurricane-force winds along parts of the Florida West Coast.
“We expect it to weaken further. It’s going to turn northward and turn northwestward and eventually move into Tennessee and Kentucky, and merge with a funnel system up in that area,” said Jack Beven, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center. Fermin Herrera, 20, his wife and their 2-month-old daughter left their room on the top floor of the hotel, where they took shelter because they were concerned about trees falling on their Valdosta home.
Helene is the third storm to strike the city in just over a year. Tropical Storm Debby blacked out power to thousands in August, while Hurricane Idalia damaged an estimated 1,000 homes in Valdosta and surrounding Lowndes County a year ago. Heavy rains began falling and winds were picking up earlier Thursday in Valdosta, Georgia, near the Florida state line. The weather service said more than a dozen Georgia counties could see hurricane-force winds exceeding 110 mph .
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