Helene has made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida's northwestern coast as a Category 4 hurricane. Forecasters say the storm is threatening a “catastrophic” storm surge in northwestern parts of Florida as well as damaging winds,

Helene is expected to make landfall well to the east of Alabama’s coastal areas on Thursday night. However, the hurricane center expects Helene to grow in size and be a very large hurricane by the time it nears the coast, which could spread some of its impacts to areas farther away.