Helene is expected to make landfall on Florida's Big Bend this evening as a major category 4 hurricane, bringing the risk of catastrophic damage.

Helene threatening an “unsurvivable” storm surge in parts of Florida and damaging winds, rains, and flash floods hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern US, forecasters said.

Hurricane Helene continued to intensify on Thursday afternoon, strengthening into a Category 3 storm, hours before the unusually large and rapidly intensifying storm was forecast to make landfall in Florida's Big Bend as a monster Category 4 storm.