“The priority now is saving lives,” Cooper said. He urged residents to stay off the roads unless they were seeking higher ground.
Tropical Storm Helene hits Florida
Late Thursday off the Florida coast 30-foot waves caused coastline flooding.
The storm made landfall in Southeast Florida, where winds were recorded at 107 mph at the West Tampa Buoy in the Gulf of Mexico. As the storm moved inland through Alma, Georgia winds were measured at 100 mph.
National Weather Service reports on Friday morning that at least 4 of their 56 river gauges are showing record-setting flooding numbers.
According to PowerOutage.US more than 4 million customers without power. The Hurricane Center warns that “Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.”
Ongoing Search and Rescue
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference from the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee.
“Search and rescue operations were conducted to help people in distress and transport people to safety. These missions continue, but we’ve had thousands of missions successfully completed in the overnight hours throughout the state.”
