Hurricane Helene Makes Landfall In Florida As Category 4 Storm

Hurricane Helene strengthened to a dangerous Category 4 in the Gulf of Mexico late Thursday night in Florida's Big Bend area. Helene was forecast to bring "catastrophic and deadly" storm surge that could be as high as 20 feet in some areas, as well as strong, damaging winds, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, a little after 11:20 p.m. Eastern Time. 

The hurricane center's director, Michael Brennan, described the expected storm surge along Florida's northwestern coastline as "a really unsurvivable scenario."

"That can destroy houses, move cars, and that water level is going to rise very quickly with the approach of Helene tonight and could cut off escape routes," Brennan said.

More than 885,000 customers in Florida were already without power as of late Thursday night, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.  

Helene which strengthened at a consistent clip throughout the day, had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph as of late Thursday night, becoming what the hurricane center described as "an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane." 

As of 11 p.m. Eastern Time, Helene was centered about 75 miles northwest of Cedar Key, Florida, and 40 miles southeast of Tallahassee.