Hurricane Helene strengthens as Florida power outages climb ahead of ‘unsurvivable’ storm surge

(FOX WEATHER) – The time to prepare for the onslaught of Hurricane Helene is essentially over as the monster storm continues to gain strength and sets its sights on Florida’s Big Bend region, where it will unleash a potentially “unsurvivable” 20-foot storm surge, catastrophic hurricane-force winds and flooding rain.

Nearly the entire state of Florida is under some sort of tropical weather alert, with Tropical Storm Warnings extending hundreds of miles inland into Georgia and the Carolinas, including Atlanta.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says that because of Hurricane Helene’s massive size, there is a significant risk of a life-threatening storm surge along the entire west coast of the Florida Peninsula, as well as Florida’s Big Bend region.