By Rich McKay and Brendan O’Brien
(Reuters) – Powerful storm Helene officially strengthened into a hurricane on Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Center said, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) as it churned in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Helene is expected to continue to intensify throughout the day and into Thursday, when it will bring a life-threatening storm surge to much of the Florida coast, forecasters said.
More than 40 million people in Florida, Georgia and Alabama were under hurricane and tropical storm warnings, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.
Numerous evacuations have been ordered along Florida’s Gulf Coast, including in Sarasota and Charlotte counties, and dozens of counties have announced school closures, including Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
With weather reports playing on her television in the background, Melissa Wolcott-Martino, a retired magazine editor from St. Petersburg, was busy packing Wednesday before evacuating her one-story coastal home and heading for higher ground.
Hours earlier, it had finally finished repairing damage caused by last year’s Hurricane Idalia, which battered the low-lying area with powerful winds and devastating floodwaters.
“Last year we had Idalia,” the 81-year-old told Reuters by telephone. “We just finished renovations, finishing touches today, and now we’re packing for another storm. This is not so good.”
Pinellas County officials ordered the evacuation of long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospitals near the coast. The county sits on a peninsula surrounded by Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
“Now, you still have time to prepare, review your hurricane plan and make sure that you are executing your hurricane preparedness plan,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Tuesday.
Helene is forecast to strengthen into a Category 3 storm with winds of at least 111 miles per hour (178 kph) before making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region south of Tallahassee on Thursday night, forecasters said.
The storm is expected to produce a dangerous storm surge of 15 feet (4.6 meters) in some areas. It is also expected to dump up to 15 inches (38.1 centimeters) of rain in isolated spots in the region, leading to significant flash and urban flooding, the National Hurricane Center said.
“It’s going to be a big storm,” NHC Deputy Director Jaime Rhome said at a news conference Tuesday. “It’s going to push a big swath of storm surge across the western portions of the Florida peninsula. This area is very, very vulnerable to storm surge.”
Residents in the possible path are told to prepare to be without power for up to a week, Florida emergency officials said at a briefing.