Hurricane Helene On Path For Florida With Significant Strengthening Expected

Hurricane Helene continued to gain strength Wednesday as it entered the Gulf of Mexico on a path toward the Big Bend area of Florida's Gulf Coast. The hurricane was expected to become more powerful as it moves through the Gulf's warm waters.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph late Wednesday afternoon, making it a Category 1 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane center uses five categories for hurricanes and considers storms that are at least a Category 3, with sustained winds over 110 mph, to be a major hurricane.

"We think that significant strengthening is going to occur here over the eastern Gulf of Mexico, potentially taking this to a Category 3 or major hurricane," Jamie Rhome, a deputy director at the hurricane center, told CBS News on Wednesday.

In the hardest-hit coastline communities, well-built framed homes may incur major damage or removal of roof decking, the hurrican center said. Many trees will be snapped or uprooted, blocking roadways. Electricity and water will likely be unavailable for several days to even weeks after the storm passes.

Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Wednesday that thousands of lineworkers were coming to the state to restore power after the storm passes.

"It is anticipated that there is going to be power outages, so folks have an opportunity to plan for that now," DeSantis said. "You still have time to make the preparations and put your plan in place today, but that time is running out."

The storm was expected to bring "life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rains to a large portion of Florida and the southeastern United States," the National Hurricane Center said.

In Florida's Big Bend area south of Tallahassee, from Carrabelle to the Suwannee River, forecasters expected the water to reach 15-20 feet above ground if the storm surge's peak occurred at the same time as high tide. Other areas could see anywhere from 3-15 feet of water, the hurricane center warned.

"The water impacts are probably going to be the most impactful part of the storm, the most deadly part of the storm," Rhome said.

Watches and warnings were issued throughout Florida ahead of the storm. President Biden and DeSantis declared emergencies in the state earlier in the week, and evacuation orders were issued in several counties. At the University of Tampa, officials were trying to evacuate all residential students by Wednesday afternoon.

Helene is expected to make landfall on Thursday, and it won't just affect Florida, Rhome said.

"I'm really concerned that southern Georgia is going to have a big impact well beyond where the center makes landfall," Rhome told CBS News.

DeSantis discouraged Floridians from traveling hundreds of miles from their homes to flee the storm because Helene was expected to move inland after making landfall.

"If you look at how this storm's going to go, it's going to hit the northern part of Florida, and it is going to keep moving, and it's going to get into southern Georgia, it's going to get into probably Atlanta, it's going to get into Tennessee-Carolina region and just kind of stall out a little bit, so Florida, we're just kind of the opening act," DeSantis said.

The governor instead urged people to move to higher ground in their own area by going to a friend or family member's home or to a shelter.

Florida preparing for Hurricane Helene

Along Florida's west coast, residents were preparing for the storm by boarding up windows, fueling up their vehicles and filling up sandbags before Helene's potentially dangerous hit.

In Tallahassee, Dorothy Richardson was getting ready to hunker down with six of her grandchildren.

"Either which way it go, I need to prepare," Richardson said. "Getting my sandbags … got my coal, got my lighter fluid, got my propane tank."

Russell King was preparing to evacuate his Mexico Beach home. He said the house barely withstood Hurricane Michael in 2018.

"We lost our shower, we lost our elevator, we lost all of our ground floor walls," King said. "We think we're OK with these now, but, you know, we don't know — 125 miles an hour, they get blown out."

Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey said the city is doubling its workforce with crews from other states coming in to help restore power and deliver aid to the area after Helene hits.

"It's very concerning," Dailey said. "I'm from Tallahassee, this is my hometown. We have never seen a storm of this magnitude that could possibly be a direct hit to Tallahassee."

Farther south, in Tampa, a makeshift wall was installed outside Tampa General Hospital to keep out water from the nearby bay. The area was expected to see 5-8 feet of storm surge. Officials said the wall held back about 2 1/2 feet of water last year when Hurricane Idalia hit.

Warm water in Gulf fuels hurricane

Record-warm water in the Gulf would act like jet fuel in intensifying the storm. Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, recently noted that ocean heat content in the Gulf of Mexico is the highest on record. Warm water is a necessary ingredient to strengthen tropical systems.

Sea surface temperatures in the path of Helene are as warm as 89 degrees Fahrenheit — 2 to 4 degrees F above normal. These record water temperatures have been made significantly more likely by human-caused climate change, according to Climate Central. The North Atlantic Ocean as a whole has seen record warm temperatures in 2024, storing 90% of the excess heat from climate change produced by greenhouse gas pollution.