Hurricane Helene strengthened to a dangerous major storm Thursday as it continued becoming more powerful in the Gulf of Mexico on a path for Florida’s Big Bend area, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm was forecast to crash ashore Thursday evening with “catastrophic and deadly” storm surge expected in some areas as well as strong, damaging winds, the hurricane center said.”This is a life-threatening situation,” the hurricane center said. “Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions.”Helene strengthened to a Category 2 storm Thursday morning and by Thursday afternoon was packing maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, making it a Category 3, which forecasters consider to be a major hurricane. The hurricane center said Helene would likely be a large Category 3 hurricane when it makes landfall on Florida’s northwestern coast Thursday evening.After the storm makes landfall, it is expected to move inland over Georgia. Serious flooding is possible in the Southeast, with half a foot of rain forecast in Atlanta and 10-20 inches in a narrow swath of the southern Appalachian Mountains.Helene’s outer bands were hammering the entire west coast of Florida on Thursday morning. In the Big Bend region south of Tallahassee, Gulf waters spilled over barriers and flooded roadways.Gov. Ron DeSantis warned residents to move to higher ground as soon as possible. “Every minute that goes by brings us closer to having conditions that are going to be simply too dangerous to navigate,” DeSantis said.At the White House, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency urged people to take the threat from storm surge seriously. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said most of the 150 people who were killed by Hurricane Ian in 2022 died from drowning.”Remember that you may only need to go 10 or 15 miles inland to get away from the threat of the storm surge itself because water is the No. 1 reason that we see people lose their lives in these storms, so please don’t underestimate what the impacts could possibly be,” Criswell said.Criswell said widespread power outages were expected in Florida and she’d travel to the region Friday to assess the damage.Several airports closed because of the storm, and airlines canceled hundreds of flights.The huge storm’s hurricane-force winds were extending outward up to 60 miles from its center and tropical-storm-force winds were extending outward up to 345 miles, the hurricane center said.Catch the Quickcast with Najahe Sherman weekdays at 4PM ET streaming on the CBS Miami app and CBSMiami.com#florida #miami #miamidade #localnews #local #community #politicalnews

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