One killed as 'extremely dangerous' Hurricane Helene strikes the US

The director of the National Hurricane Center has warned that some areas along Florida’s coast will face an ‘unsurvivable scenario’.

This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image, provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows Hurricane Helene moving through the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida on Thursday [NOAA via AP Photo].

Officials in Florida are urgently calling on residents to heed mandatory evacuation orders or face life-threatening conditions as Hurricane Helene advances across the Gulf of Mexico toward the US.

The massive storm has already brought tropical storm conditions to Florida, with one person killed on Thursday evening when a sign fell on their car in Tampa amid severe winds and rain, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has warned that the Florida Big Bend coast is at risk of a potentially catastrophic storm surge. Helene has been upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds near 130 mph (209 km/h). The NHC anticipates a storm surge of 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meters), potentially reaching the top of a second-story building. "A really unsurvivable scenario is going to play out here in this portion of the Florida coastline," said NHC director Mike Brennan.

The hurricane has already caused significant flooding, closed roads, and left approximately 698,700 homes and businesses without power in Florida, which has declared a state of emergency. Authorities are providing buses to evacuate residents from the Big Bend area to shelters in Tallahassee.

Hurricane Helene's impact extends beyond Florida, with over 55 million people in the US under weather alerts. States of emergency have been declared in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama. The NHC has warned of power outages, fallen trees, and severe flooding in the southeast, with the southern Appalachian mountains at risk of unprecedented landslides and flooding.

According to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, Helene is one of the largest hurricanes to hit the Gulf since 1988, with only three others—Irma in 2017, Wilma in 2005, and Opal in 1995—being larger.