Hours after Helene made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast, the system was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved away from the extremely warm Gulf of Mexico that allowed it to grow into a monster hurricane.
Late Thursday, Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane about 10 miles from Perry, Florida. At the time, it had top sustained winds of 140 mph. Hurricane-force winds extended 60 miles from its center, while tropical storm-force winds extended up to 310 miles from the center.
As of early Friday morning, Tropical Storm Helene had 60 mph as it spun about 35 miles south-southwest of Clemson, South Carolina. The storm was moving north at 30 mph.
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Although Helene is no longer capable of producing catastrophic winds, it is still powerful enough to deliver a breeze gusty enough to knock out power to millions. Tropical storm warnings still extend into the Carolinas, and high wind warnings were issued in parts of Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
According to Poweroutage.us, over 2 million people woke up Friday without power. Florida had the most outages with over 1.2 million customers, while Georgia had over 840,000 without power. There were also over 550,000 outages in South Carolina and 191,000 in North Carolina.
Spots as far away as Indianapolis could be at risk for power outages as forecasters warned that 60 mph gusts could strike the region later today.
As the storm moves further inland, it is expected to stall out over the Tennessee Valley. But as it slows, it could deliver enough heavy rains to flood numerous regions. Much of the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee were under flood advisories on Friday.
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"Catastrophic and life-threatening flash and urban flooding, including numerous significant landslides, is expected across portions of the southern Appalachians through Friday," said National Hurricane Center forecaster Jack Beven. "Considerable to locally catastrophic flash and urban flooding is likely for northwestern and northern Florida and the Southeast through Friday. Widespread significant river flooding is likely, some of which will be major to record-breaking."
By the end of Friday, Helene should no longer be a tropical storm, but it could still continue to produce rain over the Ohio Valley over the weekend. The rain could actually be helpful there as much of the region has been under a severe drought.
