Watching at this very moment to take this storm very seriously, and please follow the guidance of your local officials. The Storm Storm Surge is well beyond the immediate path of the mur cane, could be significant and deadly for you and your Familys Sake Everyone near the path listen to local officials. 20 foot Storm Surge, you cant good morning, and welcome to Way Too Early on this friday, September 27th im jonathan lemire, and we start this morning with Breaking News out of florida, where Hurricane Helene just a moment ago downgraded to tropical Storm Helene, Made Landfall as a category 4, making it at the time the strongest hurricane to ever hit floridas Big Ben at this hour the storm has indeed weakened, but forecasters warn it could still bring life threatening winds and unsurvivable Storm Surge with waters reaching as high as 20 feet in some places. So far the devastating impact has led to three it deaths, one in florida, two in georgia. At least 1 Million florida customers remai
Extremely dangerous four. It s more than 400 miles across, pushing a storm surge that officials are calling unsurvivable is now hitting florida s gulf coast as much as 20 feet of water what are forecast along the shore south of tallahassee, which itself is expected to take a direct blow. Some coastal areas already flooding. Take a look live pictures right now from gulfport in tampa on the right interstate to 70 prison biden this evening, urge anyone in the storm s path that take it extremely seriously. A lot of water there is certainly there graham gulfport, especially emergency managers and florida s taylor county are telling people choosing to stay and there are people choosing to stay to write her name and date of birth on a leg to help identify their bodies. Storm warnings are now in effect as far north as charlotte, north carolina. We ve got cnn correspondents all along the places now harm s way in chad myers in the cnn weather center, let s start with cnn meteorologist derek van
Now i ll see you tomorrow evening. I m kaitlan collins. This is the source hurricane helene is about to slam into florida and i expected to make landfall and just a couple of hours from now, it s now an extremely dangerous category four storm and winds are now up to 140 miles per hour. If it stays this strong, it ll be the strongest storm to ever make landfall in florida s big bend region. That s the area that we re keeping a close eye on. This hour, more than half 1 million people there have already lost power. And forecasters are predicting tonight that the storm surge in some areas could be unsurvivable reaching as high as 20 feet surges and high winds were already the reason for the closures of several major bridges in the tampa area that we saw tonight? officials, there are telling residents to shelter in place, that it is going to get worse and don t go outside. Emergency managers and one florida county are being so blunt with their warnings for those who are in low lying areas a
Tallahassee within the next few hours. Now, right now, helene is an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour. So, for more than 545,000 households in florida, they are reportedly without power and thousands have been ordered to evacuate from their homes. As you can see from these satellite images, helene is huge and is expected to affect nearly the entire state of florida with damaging winds and heavy rain. So, what may bring the most danger are the storm surges. Earlier today, residents experienced flooding in places like pine island, which is just outside of fort myers. But, flooding will likely get much worse across the state as the night continues. A storm surge warning is in place for almost the entirety of florida s west coast. This video is a simulation of what could happen if the storm surge rises to approximately 10 feet. But, in some parts of florida, officials look worn that a hurricane helene could cause storm surges of up
Now on the last word with lawrence o donnell. Good evening, we will get to andrew weissmann and other news, but we will begin with the hurricane. As you just heard from alex wagner, there are 600,000 people are ready without power. We will go straight to nbc news meteorologist bill karins at this hour for the latest on exactly what the track of the storm is. What do you see coming? we are in the impact his own. We are now watching the northern eye move onshore and it is like the equivalent of a tornado that is 40 miles wide that is now moving into florida and it will knock down everything in its path if it is not made of concrete or brick. You can see where the storm is. It has intensified all afternoon and all evening long. It is a solid category 4, almost to the higher end of category 4. The hurricane hunters said it is still intensifying right up until landfall. This is the coast and where the really destructive winds are and now they are starting to close in on populated areas. Thi