Important Takeaways:
- Authorities are going house-to-house and urging people below the dam of a popular lake in the western North Carolina mountains to evacuate as officials warn the barrier could be nearing failure.
- Relentless rain from what was once Hurricane Helene has resulted in catastrophic flooding from Florida to North Carolina as the storm moves inland across the Southeast.
- By Friday afternoon, officials said that the wall of the dam is currently holding but water from the flooded Broad River is overtopping it and support structures have been compromised.
- “Move to higher ground now!” NWS officials wrote in the warning. “This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”
- All of western North Carolina is under a high risk of flooding Friday, with as much as 20 inches of rain possible in some places before Helene moves away this weekend.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hurricane Helene continues to strengthen and is now a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph. The National Hurricane Center says Helene will likely become a major Category 3 hurricane when it makes landfall along Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday night or early Friday morning.
- Nearly the entire state of Florida is under some sort of tropical weather alert, with Tropical Storm Warnings extending hundreds of miles inland into Georgia and the Carolinas, including Atlanta.
- The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says that because of Hurricane Helene’s massive size, there is a significant risk of a life-threatening storm surge along the entire west coast of the Florida Peninsula, as well as Florida’s Big Bend region.
- “A catastrophic and deadly storm surge is likely along portions of the Florida Big Bend coast, where inundation could reach as high as 20 feet above ground level, along with destructive waves,” the NHC warned.
- Earlier this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency for 61 of the state’s 67 counties to help agencies prepare for the storm.
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Important Takeaways:
- These two characteristics are making it a unique threat to millions of Floridians and people in surrounding states as it moves north-northeastward today and Thursday.
- The storm’s large size, with tropical storm winds (sustained at 39mph to 73mph with higher gusts) extending at least 250 miles east of the storm center, ensures that nearly every Florida city outside the western Panhandle will see strong winds.
- Power outages are also likely to be widespread in Georgia and parts of South Carolina, as the storm may still be a hurricane when it moves into southern and south-central Georgia on Friday.
- Storms that have large wind fields can push more water close to the coast and produce a larger, more damaging storm surge.
- The Hurricane Center’s forecast intensification rate on Monday morning was the highest it had issued to date when going from a pre-named system to a major hurricane.
- The storm’s size and intensification rate will require most, if not all, storm preparations to be made across Florida today, with residents of Georgia having slightly more time.
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