Hurricane Helen is expected to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle Thursday night as a major hurricane, potentially reaching Category 3 or higher strength before hitting Georgia and other nearby states, meteorologists said. It is said that there is.
Hurricane Helen is expected to make landfall somewhere in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday, AccuWeather forecasters said. The National Weather Service said as of Thursday, more than 42 million people in Florida, Georgia and Alabama were under hurricane and tropical storm warnings.
The National Weather Service issued an emergency alert Wednesday afternoon, warning residents in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina that inland flooding could be a deadly factor even after the first hurricane passes. .
“NOAA’s National Weather Service is warning communities that Helen’s heavy rain and high winds are not limited to the Gulf Coast and are expected to reach hundreds of miles inland,” the statement said.
Helen may be one of the largest storms in recent memory, but this is not the first time a hurricane named Helen has been recorded in history. Two other storms, one in 1958 and one in 2006, have the same name.
Here’s what you need to know about the last Hurricane Helens.
1958: Hurricane Helen, potential Category 4
The first signs of Hurricane Helen in 1958 were discovered as a tropical storm on September 23, 1958.
At the time, it was about 300 miles northeast of the Dominican Republic. It quickly strengthened into a hurricane and moved toward the Carolinas.
At its peak off the coast of South Carolina, maximum sustained wind speeds reached 150 miles per hour. As much as 8 inches of rain fell in some parts of North Carolina. It never made landfall, reaching within 10 miles of Cape Fear, North Carolina, before returning to sea.
Evacuations were ordered for islands off the coast of North Carolina, and while there were no deaths in the region, one person was reported seriously injured by the storm. The storm did cause power outages, and the Wilmington weather station reported wind gusts of 135 miles per hour.
At the time, the modern Saffir-Simpson scale was not used to measure hurricane strength, but if it had, it would have been classified as a Category 4, according to the National Weather Service.
2006: A Category 3 hurricane struck again, although it did not make landfall.
The 2006 version was a somewhat unrelated hurricane that reached the North Atlantic Ocean without making landfall on mainland North America. It was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, according to NASA.
After being identified as a tropical cyclone in the North Atlantic, it developed into a Category 3 storm, much like today’s hurricanes, before moving further north. Wind speeds in the 2006 storm reached 110 miles per hour, according to the Tropical Cyclone Information Center.
2024: A powerful storm will make landfall this time
For some, third time’s the charm, but for residents of Florida’s Panhandle and adjacent areas, it’s more of a curse. Hurricane Helen is predicted to bring rain and strong winds to the region, potentially making it uninhabitable for weeks, if not months.
As the storm moves into the Peach State, heavy rain that could cause flooding is also expected in parts of interior Georgia, and there is a high risk of downed trees and broken branches, causing widespread power outages. There is a possibility.
After making landfall in Florida, the hurricane moved into Georgia and likely continued deeper into the United States as a storm, reaching Tennessee and Kentucky, according to tracking data.
Contributor: Tom Elia – Palm Beach Post
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact us at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow us at X @fern_cerv_.