Tracking Helene’s Latest Path

Hurricane Helene made landfall late Thursday night as a Category 4 sto​​rm in Florida’s Big Bend area, laying destruction in northern Florida and Georgia. As of Friday morning, several million people were without power.

As Helene continues to move inland, the National Hurricane Center said it was “producing historic and catastrophic flooding over portions of the southeast and southern Appalachians.” Helene is expected to turn northwestward and slow down over the Tennessee Valley later Friday and Saturday.

On Thursday, Helene unleashed tropical winds across Florida. Water levels in Clearwater Beach, in the Tampa Bay region, reached 6 feet above mean high water, late Thursday.

Flash flood emergencies were in effect for Metropolitan Atlanta, and much of Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina. The Weather Prediction Center forecasts a moderate to high risk of excessive rainfall that could cause flash flooding there, as well as parts of Tennessee, through Saturday morning.

“This rainfall will likely result in catastrophic and potentially life-threatening flash and urban flooding, along with significant and record river flooding. Numerous significant landslides are expected in steep terrain across the southern Appalachians,” wrote the NHC.

Helene was the fourth hurricane to hit the mainland US this year. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has now produced nine named storms, six of which became hurricanes.