Hurricane Helene Brings Record-Setting Storm Surge to Florida's Gulf Coast
Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida on Thursday night, and it set new storm surge records in Tampa Bay and Port Manatee, 100 miles away to the southeast.
Helene arrived on shore at about 2300 hours local time, bringing winds of about 120 knots and a storm surge of up to 20 feet to the Big Bend region. The storm's speed over ground was more than 20 knots, taking its trajectory rapidly inland into the state of Georgia.
According to local media outlets in Tampa, Hurricane Helene far exceeded previous storm surge records in a region known for storm surge vulnerability. In Clearwater, west of Tampa, the six-foot surge exceeded the previous record by two feet, causing "unprecedented" flooding. In Sarasota, south of the bay's entrance, the city's barrier islands were submerged by high water, causing as-yet-unknown damage.
The Skyway Bridge and the Howard Frankland Bridge are both CLOSED due to high winds and storm surge. Motorists should stay off the highways. #Helene pic.twitter.com/OAM2aMUPEP
— FHP Tampa (@FHPTampa) September 26, 2024
The flooding was expected in advance, and City of Tampa officials encouraged residents to manage risk by evacuating and moving their vehicles to higher ground - particularly hybrid and battery-electric vehicles.
Nearly the entire Gulf Coast of Florida was under a storm surge warning, except for the farthest western stretch of the Panhandle, according to the National Hurricane Center. A graphic released by the center suggests that tropical storm force winds (34-plus knots) affected every part of the state during the hurricane's passage.
Extraordinary imagery of Hurricane Helene's eye wall, loaded with lightning.
— CIRA (@CIRA_CSU) September 26, 2024
Hurricane Helene is now a dangerous, Category 4 storm. pic.twitter.com/fZnsA0y0UT
The storm is so wide that the U.S. Coast Guard closed Port of Jacksonville and Port Canaveral, on the Atlantic side of the state, to prevent risk to navigation from high winds. Pilotage operations also came to a brief halt at Port Miami, and though the port remains officially open, the port's busy cruise traffic temporarily paused - along with traffic at all of Florida's other world-leading cruise ports.
Cruise lines have had to adjust the arrivals and departures of vessels at every Florida port, adding to disruption from the changed itineraries of vessels that were diverted at sea during Helene's earlier transit across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The cruise industry is used to navigating large storms and finding alternative destinations in hurricane season, though Helene's impact is unusually broad because of the storm's sheer size.