MIAMI: The US state of Florida on Tuesday braced for the arrival of Storm Helene, which will make landfall later in the week as a powerful Category 3 hurricane. Currently swirling over the Caribbean with maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers per hour, Helene is expected to rapidly strengthen in the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall on the Florida coast on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Ron DeSantis, the governor of the southeastern state, extended the state of emergency to 61 of the state’s 67 counties and mobilized the National Guard. As of Tuesday evening, ten counties along the Gulf Coast had issued partial evacuation orders. “There is a significant threat of storm surge, coastal flooding and erosion, heavy rainfall and flash flooding, and damaging winds,” the executive order signed by DeSantis said Monday. In addition to warnings across Florida, the NHC issued a hurricane warning for communities in the eastern part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and a hurricane watch for Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province. If the NHC forecasts hold, Helene — with sustained winds of more than 110 miles per hour — would be the highest category hurricane to hit the United States in more than a year. Idalia, a Category 3 storm, hit northwest Florida in August 2023. Helene is set to make landfall in the same region as Idalia and Hurricane Debby, the Category 1 hurricane that hit Florida last month. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1 and ends on November 30, was less busy than expected. Scientists say climate change is likely playing a role in the rapid intensification of storms because there is more energy in a warmer ocean for them to feed on.
