Hurricane Helene claimed its first life on Thursday night after a Tampa driver was killed by falling sign that crushed their car. The incident happened on Interstate 4 in the westbound lanes at mile marker 1, the state patrol said.
It is not clear at this time how many deaths were caused by the fallen sign according to the Florida Highway Patrol, with the agency only referring to it as a “deadly crash.” FHS also did not say whether anyone else was injured in the crash. Traffic cameras in the area caught the sign on the I-4 on top of a vehicle in the area. Florida officials are asking residents in the area to stay off the roads amid the approaching storm.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center has said Hurricane Helene is unusually large and expected to have far-ranging impacts beyond Florida. Heavy rains began falling near the Florida-Georgia state line just after 7 p.m. EST. More than a dozen Georgia counties are expected to see winds up 110 mph according to the NWs.
The Category 4 storm is expected to produce “catastrophic winds” in the area over the next few hours, the center said.
“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the hurricane center said. “Persons should not leave their shelters and remain in place through the passage of these life-threatening conditions.”
The center warned when the storm’s eye comes ashore, conditions will temporarily calm, but the eye’s other side will quickly arrive and produce hazardous winds again. As of 10 p.m., the storm was 65 miles south of Tallahassee, Florida, with sustained winds of 140 mph.
Severe flooding is expected for much of the southeast region all the way to North Carolina as the storm makes its way inland. Rainfall up to 18 inches is expected for some regions including Tallahassee, metro Atlanta and western North Carolina, including Asheville, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administartion
More than 500,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida shortly as of 8:30 p.m. local time, according to tracking site poweroutage.us.
Most outages were along the state’s west coast, where Hurricane Helene was approaching. Duke Energy, a major energy provider serving west-central Florida and the Panhandle, and Florida Power & Light Company, the state’s largest energy provider, were reporting over 150,000 outages each.
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Airports in the area of landfall have ceased operations, including Tampa, Clearwater and Tallahassee with the notable exception of Orlando International Airport which saw 65 cancelations on Thursday. Tornado warnings have also been issued for much of Florida and southeastern Georgia and they are expected to remain in place until early Friday morning.
While the wind can cause serve damage to property the real threat with Helene will be the storm surge.
“The leading cause of death from hurricanes is water, not wind,” said Craig Fugate, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
