Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Florida with fatality reported

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) — Category 4 hurricane Helene made its landfall near Perry, Florida on Thursday night.
As the strongest hurricane on record slammed into the Big Bend area of Florida, Helene has caused one death on Interstate 4 near Ybor City in the Tampa area, said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The hurricane had a maximum sustained wind of 140 miles (225 km) per hour at the time of landfall, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Downed trees and power lines were reported in the western Alachua county of Florida, said local officials.
Hurricane Helene was forecast to hit southern Georgia overnight and end up in Tennessee by Friday afternoon as a tropical storm.
U.S. President Joe Biden has nodded emergency declarations in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama.
An advisory from National Weather Service Tallahassee asked people to “treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to an interior room or shelter now!”
The National Weather Service also issued a tornado watch for parts of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina until Friday morning.
More than 1.1 million customers are without power in Florida as of 12:20 a.m. (1620 GMT) Friday, according to PowerOutage.us., which tracks the data.
Multiple counties in Florida have issued evacuation orders, and overnight curfew has been imposed in several cities and counties in south Georgia. ■