Helene Smashed Ashore Last Night With 140 MPH Winds, Now We Wait On Casuality/Damage Assessments

Screen grab from television station KSDK of a destructive
storm surge from Hurricane Helene plowing into
buildings in Cedar Key, Florida last night. 

 As of early this morning, at least three people have died in Hurricane Helene, and that number is expected to rise as people begin to look around once dawn breaks on trashed Florida and Georgia.

The disaster is ongoing. As of the pre-dawn hours, Helene was well inland with top sustained winds down to 70 mph. 

But it was unleashing torrents of rain and the likelihood of catastrophic flooding in parts of Georgia and the western Carolinas. 

The National Hurricane Center said Helene made landfall at 11:10 EDT time Thursday as expected just east of the mouth of the Aucilla River in Florida's Big Bend region. That's about 45 miles east, southeast of Tallahassee.  It was a Category 4 with top winds of 140 mph. 

On the bright side, Tallahassee just barely missed the worst of the winds from Helene as the eyewall passed a smidge east of town.  There's a lot of trees down and the power is out in the city, but the wind wasn't strong enough to blow houses and buildings apart, as had been feared. Some homes have been damaged in Tallahassee by falling trees.

Here's one sign that climate change might be making at least some hurricanes stronger and more dangerous:  Since 2017, eight Category 4 or 5 hurricanes have hit the United States, with seven of them in the continental U.S. That's as many Cat 4s and 5s in the previous 57 years, reports hurricane expert Jeff Masters. 

Videos beginning to emerge from Florida show deep storm surge flooding in Steinhatchee and numerous other places. The Weather Channel showed video of the storm surge in Cedar Key nearly reaching some roofs. Another video shows severe building damage in Lee, Florida.

The storm surge flooding extended well south of where Helene came ashore, causing a lot of damage in places like Tampa and Fort Myers Beach. The surge in Tampa and Clearwater reached record highs. 

That Fort Myers Beach was so damaged and flooded is especially sad since that community was absolutely devastated by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and was just starting to fully come back from that disaster.  At least this time, the destruction at Fort Myers Beach isn't nearly as bad as it was with Ian. 

Yet another video shows a storm surge blasting into the interior of a St. Petersburg Beach home. 

Further north and inland, water rescues were ongoing in interior Georgia and western North Carolina. Asheville, North Carolina was awash in severe flooding from heavy rain even before the core of Helene arrived early today. 

Weather radar shows the eye of Hurricane Helene approaching
northwest Florida last evening. 

Video showed rescuers pulling dozens of people from a flooded apartment complex in Atlanta, Georgia. In a very close call, a woman, baby and dogs were stuck atop a flooded car near Atlanta amid rushing waters for about an hour, but rescuers finally got them to safety. 

Both Atlanta and Asheville were under a rare flash flood emergency early this morning, which is the most dire of this type of warning. As of 7 a.m. there were unconfirmed reports of deaths and injuries around Atlanta.  There have already been reports of at least 16 inches of rain in the mountains of North Carolina.

As of 6 a.m. about 3.2 million customers were without electricity in the Southeast and that number was growing. 

Helene will continue to grind away at the Southeast today with torrential rains, floods and gusty, sometimes damaging winds. High wind warnings have now been extended as far north as Indianapolis, Indiana, where gusts are expected to reach at least 60 mph today.

Helene will fade away and merge with an upper level low over the mid-South later today and tomorrow. That complex could continue to cause flooding rains for the next couple days. 

Since dawn is just breaking in the hurricane zone as I write this early Friday morning, details are still sketchy, of course. I'm sure there will be more updates as the day goes by. 

As has been stated before, the remains of Helene will not affect us here in Vermont. 

Meanwhile, hurricane experts are beginning to watch another disturbance off the coast of Mexico which could eventually become yet another tropical storm or hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico in about a week or so.