Tallahassee State professor Pamela Andrews carriers sandbags to a car in preparation for possible flooding as Tropical Storm Helene heads toward the state’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 25, 2024, in Tallahassee, Fla. Currently, Tropical Storm Helene is forecast to become a major hurricane, bringing the potential for deadly storm surges, flooding rain, and destructive hurricane-force winds along parts of the Florida West Coast. Helene is expected to make landfall in Florida on Thursday.
Gary Lush places plywood against a window as he prepares his store Five Fish ahead of the possible arrival of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 25, 2024, in Tarpon Springs, Fla.
In this aerial view, people fill sandbags at Helen Howarth Park ahead of the possible arrival of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 25, 2024, in Pinellas Park, Fla.
Bo Manausa pulls his boot out of the water ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall Thursday evening, in Alligator Point, Fla. on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.
Owners secure their boats at the Davis Islands Yacht Club ahead of Hurricane Helene on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Tampa, Fla.
J. (who didn’t want to provide full name) places plywood against a window as he prepares his store Opa!, ahead of the possible arrival of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 25, 2024, in Tarpon Springs, Fla.
Jerry McCullen, top of ladder left, and Carson Baze, top of ladder right, put plywood over the windows of a house ahead of Hurricane Helene, expected to make landfall Thursday evening, in Alligator Point, Fla. on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.
A traffic advisory sign on westbound S.R. 408 near downtown Orlando, Fla., informs commuters of the approaching Hurricane Helene on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.
A man works on securing his boat due to Tropical Storm Helene in Havana, Cuba on Sept. 25, 2024. Florida started preparing for Helene, due to make landfall later in the week as a powerful Category 3 hurricane. Helene, currently churning over the Caribbean with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, is projected to rapidly strengthen through the Gulf of Mexico before slamming into the Florida coast on Sept. 26, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene fall over Cancun, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, on Sept. 24, 2024. Helene strengthened into a hurricane on September 25 in the Gulf of Mexico and is “expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds, and flooding rains to a large portion of Florida and the Southeastern United States,” the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene fall over Cancun, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, on Sept. 24, 2024.