CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. — Officials said Friday at least seven people are dead in Florida after a monster Category 4 Hurricane Helene hammered the Big Bend and Gulf coast regions of the state.
During a news conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis said a person was killed on Interstate 4 near Ybor City late Thursday when a large highway sign fell onto that person's car. In addition, a person was killed in Dixie County when a tree toppled onto a home.
Another five people have died in Pinellas County after Helene blew threw the area overnight, county officials said Friday.
"I pray that that's it. But I also know these are hazardous conditions," DeSantis said. "This is some serious damage there."
ABC reported Friday the death toll in Florida rose to nine.
WATCH: Gov. Ron DeSantis gives update on Hurricane Helene aftermath
The death toll from Helene has reached at least 40 across four states. According to an Associated Press tally Friday, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said dozens of people were still trapped in buildings damaged by Helene. Authorities were "having a hard time getting to places," so teams with chainsaws were "working to free up roads," Kemp told a news conference.
Helene made landfall in Taylor County in Florida's Big Bend region at approximately 11:10 p.m. Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph.
DeSantis said Helene brought "historic storm surge" to the Big Bend and Tampa Bay areas.
Search and rescue operations involving the Florida National Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and other local agencies have been underway since the early hours of Friday.
"We've add thousands of missions successfully completed in the overnight hours throughout the state," DeSantis said. "All the calls that any state officials responded to last night, we were able to find the person, or people and pets, and bring them to safety."
As of 1 p.m. Friday, approximately 1 million customers are without power across the state, and utility crews have restored power to 1.4 million customers, according to DeSantis.
In addition, 470 "cut and toss" crews have cleared more than 8,000 miles of roadway since 3 a.m. Friday, and major airports in Tampa, Tallahassee, Lakeland, and Gainesville have resumed operations today.
Helene weakened to a tropical storm over Georgia early Friday with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
TRACKING THE TROPICS: Hurricane Center | Hurricane Guide
Helene continues to weaken while moving farther inland over Georgia.
The storm made landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm as forecasters warned the enormous system could create a “nightmare” storm surge and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern U.S.
The hurricane center said Helene roared ashore around 11:10 p.m. Thursday near the mouth of the Aucilla River in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast. It had maximum sustained winds estimated at 140 mph. That location was only about 20 miles northwest of where Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year at nearly the same ferocity and caused widespread damage.
The hurricane’s eye passed near Valdosta, Georgia, as the storm churned rapidly north into Georgia Thursday night. The National Hurricane Center issued an extreme wind warning for the area, meaning possible hurricane-force winds exceeding 115 mph.
At a hotel in the city of 55,000 near the Florida line, dozens of people huddled in the darkened lobby after midnight Friday as winds whistled and howled outside. Electricity was out, with hall emergency lights, flashlights and cellphones providing the only illumination. Water dripped from light fixtures in the lobby dining area and roof debris fell to the ground outside.
Fermin Herrera, 20, his wife and their 2-month-old daughter left their room on the top floor of the hotel, where they took shelter because they were concerned about trees falling on their Valdosta home.
“We heard some rumbling,” said Herrera, cradling the sleeping baby in a downstairs hallway. “We didn’t see anything at first. After a while the intensity picked up. It looked like a gutter that was banging against our window. So we made a decision to leave.”
Helene is the third storm to strike the city in just over a year. Tropical Storm Debby blacked out power to thousands in August, while Hurricane Idalia damaged an estimated 1,000 homes in Valdosta and surrounding Lowndes County a year ago.
“I feel like a lot of us know what to do now,” Herrera said. “We’ve seen some storms and grown some thicker skins.”
Helene prompted hurricane and flash flood warnings extending far beyond the coast up into northern Georgia and western North Carolina. More than 1.2 million homes and businesses were without power in Florida, more than 190,000 in Georgia and more than 30,000 in the Carolinas, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. The governors of those states and Alabama and Virginia all declared emergencies.
“When Floridians wake up tomorrow morning, we’re going to be waking up to a state where very likely there’s been additional loss of life and certainly there’s going to be loss of property," DeSantis said at a news conference Thursday night.
Helene was moving rapidly inland after making landfall, with the center of the storm set to race from southern to northern Georgia through early Friday morning. The risk of tornadoes also would continue overnight and into the morning across north and central Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and southern North Carolina, forecasters said. Later Friday, there would be the risk of tornadoes in Virginia.
“Helene continues to produce catastrophic winds that are now pushing into southern Georgia,” the hurricane center said in an update at 1 a.m. Friday. “Persons should not leave their shelters and remain in place through the passage of these life-threatening conditions.”
The storm made landfall in the sparsely-populated Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet.
“Please write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified,” the sheriff's office in mostly rural Taylor County warned those who chose not to evacuate in a Facebook post, the dire advice similar to what other officials have dolled out during past hurricanes.
Still, Philip Tooke, a commercial fisherman who took over the business his father founded near the region’s Apalachee Bay, planned to ride out this storm like he did during Hurricane Michael and the others: on his boat. “If I lose that, I don’t have anything,” Tooke said.
Michael, a Category 5 storm, all but destroyed one town, fractured thousands of homes and businesses and caused some $25 billion in damage when it struck the Florida Panhandle in 2018.
Federal authorities staged search-and-rescue teams as the weather service forecast storm surges of up to 20 feet and warned they could be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Apalachee Bay.
Tropical Weather
TROPICS: 4 more areas we're watching
Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.
