TALLADEGA, Ala. — Hurricane Helene, an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane, made landfall Thursday night along the Florida Big Bend region.
The eyewall began to cross land shortly after 9 p.m. CT, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared emergencies in their states as Helene moved in. The National Weather Service in Tallahassee issued an “extreme wind warning” for the Big Bend as the eyewall approached: “Treat this warning like a tornado warning,” it said in a post on X. “Take shelter in the most interior room and hunker down!”
President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency for the State of Alabama and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal, and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Helene.
More updates can be found here.
President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for Alabama. It states, in part:
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that an emergency exists in the State of Alabama and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Hurricane Helene beginning on September 22, 2024, and continuing.
The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe.
A hurricane officially makes landfall when the center of the eye passes over land. After landfall Helene will move north bringing impacts to the Tennessee Valley.
