Helene, now a major hurricane, menaces Florida with ‘unsurvivable’ storm surge

Driving rain flooded roadways and closed down airports in Florida as an intensifying Hurricane Helene marched toward the state’s panhandle region, bringing the threat of a potentially deadly storm surge to much of the coastline.

The storm became a major Category 3 hurricane on Thursday afternoon with sustained winds near 120mph (193kph), the National Hurricane Centre said, and was expected to continue gaining power. Helene was forecast to make landfall in the evening in Florida’s Big Bend region, possibly as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds in excess of 130mph (209kph).

Officials pleaded with residents in the path of the storm to heed mandatory evacuation orders or face life-threatening conditions. Helene’s surge – the wall of seawater pushed on land by hurricane-force winds – could rise to as much as 20ft (6.1 metres) in some spots, as tall as a two-storey house, the centre’s director, Michael Brennan, said in a video briefing.

“A really unsurvivable scenario is going to play out” in the coastal area, Brennan said, with water capable of destroying buildings and carrying cars pushing inland.

The hurricane was about 160 miles (274km) west-southwest of Tampa, Florida, as of 3pm local time, the centre said.