Live updates: Hurricane Helene leaves devastation around Florida, at least 7 dead (2024)

Editor’s note: This story is a recap of Friday’s events. We will continue reporting on every angle of Tampa Bay’s road to recovery, so check back often to tampabay.com.

On Friday, many around Tampa Bay awaited help as search and rescue teams worked to pull people from water-logged homes. Evacuees returned to survey the damage.

By early Friday morning, nearly 1 million Floridians were without power. Outages remained for roughly 250,000 Tampa Bay residents well into late afternoon.

At least seven people are reported dead, five in Pinellas County.

Hurricane Helene unleashed record storm surge, with communities from St. Petersburg’s Shore Acres to the beaches to Tampa’s Davis Islands inundated with flood water. Businesses in Gulfport and Treasure Island were ravaged.

Across the region, people repeated the same refrain: They’d never seen water so high.

Residents of Florida’s Big Bend region confronted a near-midnight landfall of the Category 4 storm late Thursday. For much of the night, tropical storm warnings were in effect from the Florida Keys to the Panhandle.

9:41 p.m.: Boil water notice for Pinellas barrier islands

Pinellas County utilities officials have issued a boil water notice for customers in the southern barrier islands from John’s Pass to Fort De Soto Park. This impacts St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island and Tierra Verde customers.

Residents should use bottled water or bring tap water to a rolling boil for one minute and cool it down before drinking, cooking or personal hygiene use. If the water is cloudy, filter it through a cloth, paper towel or coffee filter before boiling. If there is no way to boil water, add 1/8 teaspoon of unscented bleach per gallon of water, stir and let stand for 30 minutes.

The department will notify residents when it’s safe to use water regularly.

7:40 p.m.: Gandy and Howard Frankland bridges reopen

Tampa Bay’s major bridges opened Friday after they were closed during Hurricane Helene. The Courtney Campbell remained closed as of about 7 p.m. Here’s the latest.

— Shauna Muckle

7:22 p.m.: Tampa wastewater pump is functional again

The City of Tampa announced that the Krauss Pumping Station, one of Tampa’s main wastewater pump stations that went offline because of flooding, is functional again. The downtown station was repaired Friday afternoon.

The city also said that the Bayshore Pumping Station was earlier believed to have gone down, but was actually functional throughout.

Other wastewater stations did still experience damage, and customers are still asked to minimize water usage.

— Divya Kumar

6:55 p.m.: St. Petersburg water reclamation facility will come back online tonight

Residents of northeast St. Petersburg received some good news on Friday: They will be able to flush their toilets, take showers and do laundry starting at midnight after city officials said they will get the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility back on line.

The facility, the lowest lying of the city’s three sewage plants, had been de-activated Thursday amid historic storm surge.

Get more information here.

— Colleen Wright

5:53 p.m.: Pinellas County barrier islands remain closed

People who evacuated the Pinellas barrier islands for Hurricane Helene will have to wait a little longer to get back out there.

Pinellas officials on Friday evening said the beaches will remained closed to access Friday, though that will be re-assessed Saturday.

Meanwhile, crews are continuing to remove debris and sheriff’s deputies will keep an eye out for looters. Read the full story here.

— Chris Tisch

5:25 p.m.: Scenes of wreckage in Gulfport

— Aya Diab

5:08 p.m.: Shore Acres hit hard by storm surge

Along the crisscrossing streets of Shore Acres, homes were tied together by a devasting string — waterlines at least 4 feet high marking low-level homes.

On Friday afternoon, residents were assessing damage from the overnight storm surge.

St. Petersburg experienced more than 6 feet of surge, and according to the city, more than 100 miles of flooded roads.

“If you want to stand outside and scream, it’s okay,” Kevin Batdorf, the president of the Shore Acres Civic Association, wrote on the neighborhood’s Facebook group Friday morning. “We understand.”

Read more about the scenes residents found in their waterlogged homes.

— Michaela Mulligan and Lauren Peace

5:07 p.m.: More than 1,000 rescued from Helene

As first responders across Tampa Bay worked to assess damage Friday morning from Hurricane Helene, emergency managers reported that more than 1,000 people had been rescued overnight across a three-county region.

Many rescues occurred in low-lying areas that had been subject to evacuation orders, including along the Pinellas County beaches. In some cases, the storm prevented emergency workers from getting to the places where people had called for help. As skies cleared and flood waters began receding Friday morning, some were found dead.

“We had issued the mandatory evacuation orders. Not everybody evacuated,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said in a Friday morning news conference. “And unfortunately they called for help and unfortunately we couldn’t help a lot of the people who called as those conditions got very bad last night.”

In Pinellas County, where beach communities and low-lying neighborhoods saw widespread damage, emergency personnel logged more than 5,000 storm-related 911 calls. They conducted more than 500 water rescues.

Read more about rescue efforts across Tampa Bay.

— Dan Sullivan

3:58 p.m.: Many Tampa Bay schools to reopen Monday

Students, get ready to head back to classes.

After assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, Pasco County school district officials said all but one campus will reopen on Monday.

“The only school that we are working through, as far as probably not ready to reopen on Monday, is West Pasco Education Academy,” superintendent Kurt Browning said. The Hudson alternative campus suffered flooding.

“All the other schools, even the ones I thought would get whacked, they’re fine,” he added, noting that six had power outages that are expected to be resolved over the weekend.

Exactly how many district employees were affected by the storm — and whether they can make it to work on Monday — remains an open question. Browning said the district would work with those situations.

“Obviously, their first priority should be taking care of their homes and families,” he said. “We will certainly accommodate them.”

Hernando County schools had no major problems because of the storm, spokesperson Karen Jordan said. All sites will be open on Monday.

A couple of Hillsborough County schools had some water damage and minor flooding, which is being worked on, district spokeswoman Tanya Arja said. Other than that, the campuses had little damage.

“At this time I expect all will be ready to open on Monday,” Arja said.

Pinellas County crews were out checking out schools during the afternoon.

Superintendent Kevin Hendrick said early in the day that at least 30 were without power, and that two — Madeira Beach Fundamental K-8 School and Gulf Beaches Elementary — were anticipated to have damages because of their proximity to the coast.

Some schools also were still being used as shelters.

The district had not completed its review to determine its next steps as of 3 p.m. Friday. Officials said they would provide an update on school status over the weekend. They already have scheduled one makeup day for Oct. 14.

— Jeffrey S. Solochek

3:42 p.m.: Florida’s capital spared from worst-case scenario

Florida’s capital city was bracing for the worst as Hurricane Helene approached Thursday night. But as the sun rose Friday morning, so did hopes that Tallahassee had been spared the worst of the storm.

No damage was immediately apparent in state government buildings, including the state Capitol and Governor’s Mansion. Florida State University’s Tallahassee campus appeared largely unscathed.

By mid-morning Friday, the town’s streetlights were largely operational, and many businesses were open. In the college town, cars lined up at the Taco Bell drive-thru and lines went out the door at Waffle Houses and Denny’s locations.

Read this dispatch from one of our Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau reporters.

— Ana Ceballos

3:39 p.m.: Snell Isle and Shore Acres access now open

Access to Snell Isle and Shore Acres is now open, according to a city of St. Petersburg post on X.

— Hannah Critchfield

3:36 p.m.: Hundreds of thousands still without power

Power was restored for thousands of Tampa Bay residents by Friday at 3:30 p.m., but around 248,000 customers were still without power.

Outages in the Big Bend region are still the most severe, with more than 99% of customers with no electricity.

— Teghan Simonton

3:35 p.m.: Can Tampa Bay continue to live on the edge of disaster?

Though Helene’s eye was many miles off our shores, the storm’s impacts amounted to what experts in the lead-up kept calling a “reasonable worst-case scenario.”

That’s one of those wonky actuarial terms that manages to lose all meaning in reality. What is reasonable about a worst case? What’s reasonable about any of this?

Read the full column here.

— Stephanie Hayes

3:20 p.m.: Gov. Ron DeSantis offers state aid for St. Pete sewage issues

Gov. Ron DeSantis said there are state resources available to city officials in St. Petersburg to help manage the sewage problem after 25% of residents reported they can’t flush their toilets, take showers or put anything down the drain following Hurricane Helene.

If city officials want help with the St. Petersburg sewage problem, they should reach out to the Division of Emergency Management, DeSantis said.

”We helped in Lee County. They had similar things after Hurricane Ian,” DeSantis said at a news conference in St. Pete Beach on Friday. “There’s different things that potentially we can do to be helpful in those situations.”

DeSantis added: “And St. Pete’s not the only place in Florida that is having issues with some of the sewage.”

The governor said that it was “difficult” for him to return to his home county of Pinellas and “see things that are, you know, not tidy” following the storm.

”You see trash. You see the effects of major storm surge,” DeSantis said. “We’re going to get back up and this place is going to do well.”

DeSantis noted that the storm “didn’t come within 100 miles of the coast and yet churned up this really, really significant storm surge” in the “very low-lying” coastal region.

There have been nearly 1.4 million power restorations across the state since the storm began and about a million power outages remain, DeSantis said.

As of 12:30 p.m., roughly 99,000 Duke Energy customers in Pinellas County had their power restored and about 200,000 customers still were without power, said the company’s Florida president, Melissa Seixas. The company will update those remaining customers around 6 or 7 p.m. on when their power will be restored.

Seixas noted that Duke also serves customers in Taylor County, where Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm.

”What we ask is that our customers continue to be diligent about their safety,” Seixas said. “Stay away from any downed power line, always assume that it’s energized. Debris in the road, don’t try to remove it yourself. There could be all kinds of hidden dangers in there.”

— Alexandra Glorioso

3:17 p.m.: Blown away

Hurricane Helene’s surge battered the southern end of Davis Islands, leaving a spray of driftwood, dead palm fronds, foam and trash stuck in the chain-link fence at Peter O. Knight Airport.

Nearby, a hulking trawler and two sailboats were smashed together along a bend in the sea wall. A slick of gasoline leaked into the water.

Passersby stopped to gawk.

Nick Young, 28, and Drew Griffith, 29, both of Tampa, had been checking out the impact of the storm around the city. They had seen high surge creep up Thursday. But the wrecks were still surprising.

“These boats are pretty heavy,” Griffith said. He wondered how one of the sailboats came to be perched atop the sea wall, while the others listed in the waves.

Its name was clearly visible above the others: “Blown Away.”

— Zachary T. Sampson

3:09 p.m.: Howard Frankland Bridge reopens

The Howard Frankland has fully reopened, nearly 24 hours after it closed yesterday amid intense waves from Tampa Bay.

The Gandy Bridge’s westbound lanes and the inside eastbound lane are open. The Courtney Campbell Causeway is still closed.

— Shauna Muckle

2:56 p.m.: The Lightning Foundation to donate $2 mil for relief efforts

Lightning owner Jeff Vinik announced that the Lightning Foundation would be donating $2 million toward relief efforts for those impacted by the storm.

The foundation is reaching out to non-profits in the community to decide the best path to getting funds to where they are needed most. The Lightning also will provide support through employee volunteer efforts.

The Lightning Foundation and Vinik Family Foundation combined to make a similar $2 million donation to Hurricane Ian relief efforts in 2022.

— John Romano

2:53 p.m.: Safety Harbor pier destroyed

The Safety Harbor Municipal Fishing Pier has been completely destroyed by Hurricane Helene.

The downtown attraction was a draw for tourists and locals.

—Tracey McManus

2:39 p.m.: ‘I don’t want to do this again:’ A narrow escape in Riverview

His family safely evacuated, Chris Berry had planned to ride out the storm so he could keep an eye on their riverfront home.

But the rising floodwaters that came out of the dark seemed like they would never stop. At around 12:30 a.m., he and his son jumped into a canoe to seek higher ground. As they paddled out, they had to swat away spiders and roaches and other bugs seeking dry land.

“Every bug in the ground is trying to get away and they’re scrambling on you,” he said. “It’s the most disgusting thing in the world.”

Berry and his family were back 7 a.m. Friday to start cleaning up the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene’s storm surge.

The Alafia River reached a record 9.4 feet high at 1 a.m. Friday. Debris particles that stuck to Berry’s patio screen showed the water had reached about five feet, flipping everything over.

Water had gotten inside the home too, reaching about knee high. Everything that could be moved inside the home had been piled on top of tables and benches.

Berry’s partner, Nadine Clark, who is a hairstylist, said it may be time to move. A Riverview resident of 17 years, she said the community is changing rapidly. Gone is the quiet community that she loved — and she’s tired of dealing with flooding.

I don’t want to do this again,” she said.

When it came to deciding whether to evacuate, Riverview resident Nicole Nedley took her lead from the meteorologist for ABC Action News.

“Denis Phillips says ‘Run away from water,’ and I listened to him,” she said.

So she and her family rode out the storm at a Holiday Inn while Nedley’s four puppies stayed at her mom’s. It was sage advice.

Overnight, five feet of water infiltrated their waterfront home on the Alafia River. Nedley has dealt with flooding in her front room before, but this time the whole home she shares with Joe Davis was saturated.

The water rose to about three feet inside. Nedley fears her new kitchen cabinets and marble countertops will have to be ripped out to replace sodden walls.

“This time it’s all through my home,” she said. “I’ve been crying but we’re safe. My neighbors are safe. We all got out.”

— Christopher O’Donnell

2:34 p.m.: Caddy’s restaurants pummeled

There are five Caddy’s restaurants around Tampa Bay, but the newest of five got pummeled by Helene. All that remains of the bar top at Caddy’s in John’s Pass is a twisted frame of splintered plywood and shattered tile.

Broken glass and rusty nails were strewn on the ceramic floor. Blue and white chairs lay in a heap along the back wall.

Along the six feet of remaining bar top, some unknown visitor had lined up the last five bottles of liquor that survived the storm, a greeting to those who come exploring.

— Ian Hodgson

2:30 p.m.: ‘Lord willing, it’s not every two years’

Residents of Dana Shores in Tampa donned rubber boots and dragged their wet possessions out to driveways and front yards Friday afternoon as flooding lingered on low-lying streets.

Tall pickup trucks drove quickly down the quiet roads, kicking up waves. During Hurricane Helene, the surge rose multiple feet in a number of homes, floating furniture and filling garages.

“I think everyone got it,” said David Curtas, 53, of the neighborhood just north of the Courtney Campbell Causeway.

His family had built the house across the street in the 1960s, he said, and it never flooded except for water that soaked the carpets during Hurricane Elena in 1985.

But he and his wife Heather, 52, always knew a storm emerging from the Yucatán and paralleling Tampa Bay could be a problem.

“The right storm with the right angle,” he said.

Helene proved to be such a case, staining their washer and dryer with dark lines a couple feet high and pushing water deeper into their home over the wood floors.

As they worked to sort what was damaged Friday, roseate spoonbills and ibises congregated on the flooded golf course across the street.

“We’re going to be okay, and if this is a once-every-50-year, 60-year, 100-year event, then it’s worth living here,” he said. “Lord willing, it’s not every 2 years.”

— Zachary T. Sampson

2:17 p.m.: First flood after decades in a Clearwater neighborhood

In the 47 years that Mike Foley has lived in his home along Stevenson Creek in Clearwater, he has never before seen his Navajo Park neighborhood flood.

That changed with Hurricane Helene, as 30 inches of water filled his home before 11 p.m. Wednesday and ruined much of what was inside.

He rode out the storm with his next door neighbor — his brother John Foley — and the two tried to get family records and their electric bikes to higher levels as the water filled John Foley’s home.

“Everything’s ruined,” John Foley said.

The two have evacuated before, but chose to stay this time “so I could deal with it as it occurred, but the water kept coming and coming and coming,” John Foley said.

He said he’d never seen a storm like Helene and the power of this one felt different.

“Those limbs were whipping around like they were a ride at Busch Gardens,” John Foley said.

The brothers were spending Friday taking ruined appliances, mattresses and rugs to the curb.

Mike Foley said his home is still a paradise, where he sees manatees swim from his backyard in Stevenson Creek.

“We are going to stay and rebuild and it’s going to be even better,” he said.

— Tracey McManus

2:01 p.m.: ‘Never seen it come anywhere close before:’ Pinellas Point dispatch

At Velvet Cloake, a modest, two-story residential complex at the tip of the Pinellas County peninsula, Leigh and Jeffery Gary did what little they could to clean up the wrecked common area behind their condo late Friday morning — righting the toppled benches that normally offer a pristine view of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

Tampa Bay water came surging over the seawall overnight. It blasted through a three-foot wall that ran along the waterfront, scattering red bricks all over the lawn before sloshing into the southern-facing units and wrecking furniture and appliances. The end of their dock collapsed.

The Garys had watched the water build towards their front door through a Ring doorbell camera, while taking shelter at a friend’s house.

“We’ve never seen it come anywhere close to our door before,” said Leigh Gary, a 25-year resident of the complex. Jeffery Gary stared in astonishment at a large, flat-hulled boat washed ashore in a neighboring backyard, more than 10 feet up a slope.

In the nearby Bahama Shores neighborhood, maintenance workers mopped up water that had flooded units facing Bahama Shores Drive South at the Westminster Shores retirement community. Farther down the street, residents of bayfront homes were carrying dirty chairs and couches sodden with floodwater out to the curb.

At the Paradise Bayou apartments on Fourth Street South, neighbors remarked on the debris line showing that the water had stopped feet from their doorsteps. Yards away, a grounded sailboat sat tipped on its side after being washed ashore from Big Bayou, where it had apparently been anchored overnight. Other boats remained in the bayou unharmed.

That stretch of Fourth Street was closed overnight due to flooding, and Paradise Bayou residents had been hemmed in by water on three sides. Several cars in the parking lot were flooded.

A few blocks north in the Old Southeast neighborhood, just north of the small bridge colloquially known as “thrill hill,” a seemingly abandoned-for-now Cadillac SUV sat halfway up a curb and half in the street with tree debris caught in the wheel wells. One window was down, and the seats and floorboards were soaked with water and mud.

No one was around.

— Christopher Spata

1:54 p.m.: ‘Like a bomb’ in Town ‘n’ Country

The wall in Orlando Infante’s living room is cut away shin-hight, the exposed concrete below an unwelcome reminder of Hurricane Idalia’s flood last year.

Infante was waiting for this hurricane season to be over to finish repairs. Then, late Thursday, Hurricane Helene deposited a water line more than twice as high, racing from the top of Tampa Bay into neighborhoods off Memorial Highway.

Infante, 38, sweat beside his friends and family Friday afternoon as they cleared his possessions off the slick tile.

They piled wooden end tables and soggy boxes by the curb. Smoke hung in the air, drifting from a home smoldering a few hundred feet down a canal. A Nissan sedan sat at an odd angle up the road, smashed after being dropped there by the flood. Drivers swerved to avoid the wreck.

“There was nothing I could have done,” Infante said. He evacuated before the storm to a family home in Carrollwood and watched a feed of his home cameras for half an hour as the surge climbed. Then the power cut out.

He lamented the washing machine knocked off-kilter by the flood in his garage. The air conditioner swallowed by the flood. The insulin that spoiled without electricity to power the fridge.

“Like a bomb,” he said to describe Helene’s force.

He only received his flood insurance payment from Idalia a couple months ago, he said. Infante said he pays $8,000 a year — $6,000 for flood coverage and $2,000 for home.

Helene, he thinks, will be cause for his third claim. As of Friday, he was thinking of fixing up the place and selling.

Elsewhere around the soggy neighborhood, residents stood beside cars with hoods propped open in the hot afternoon sun to dry out the engines. Infante recalled meeting one couple who was walking around in search of their trash cans. They had a baby.

He could move fairly easily, he said. But what about them?

“I like my house. But you cannot live here anymore,” he said. “It’s every year.”

— Zachary T. Sampson

1:46 p.m.: A Riverview bar cleans debris

For most of Thursday, you could blot out the threat of Hurricane Helene at the Beer Shed, a waterfront bar and barbecue joint on the Alafia River.

There was live music. Residents, many of whom live in the eclectic surrounding community of expensive homes and trailers on breeze blocks, downed pitchers of beer.

Even as late as 10 p.m., there were still about 15 people finishing up drinks, said bartender Donna Smith.

But Helene proved to be the worst of party crashers. The last revelers were asked to leave soon after, as floodwaters tapped at the back door of the bar and two picnic tables floated away from its lower deck overlooking the river.

“Everyone was not happy about having to go, but we had to throw the main breaker,” Smith said.

On Friday morning, bar staff were mopping the floor and clearing out debris. About two feet of water had infiltrated the bar, but it was easy to clean the stone floor once the waters receded. An electrician was on site to check wiring and to turn the breaker switch back on.

By lunchtime, the small neon Budweiser and Yuengling signs behind the bar were back on and staffers were getting ready to start serving.

— Christopher O’Donnell

1:27 p.m.: Tampa Bay power companies evaluate widespread damage, flooding

Tampa Bay’s utility providers reviewed the damage Friday morning after Hurricane Helene pounded the region with high winds and the highest storm surge on record.

“There are portions of our system we can’t access because of the flooding,” said Cherie Jacobs, a spokesperson for Tampa Electric. “So, we can’t get a full assessment of our system at this hour.”

More than 941,000 Floridians were still without power by Friday afternoon, including about 305,000 in Tampa Bay.

Read about the utilities’ ongoing efforts to restore power.

— Teghan Simonton

1:20 p.m.: Sunshine Skyway Bridge reopens

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge completely reopened to drivers around 1:15 p.m. Friday. That bridge was the first to close yesterday as wind gusts rose to 60 miles per hour.

The Howard Frankland and Gandy bridges are only open in one direction. The lanes headed toward St. Petersburg on each bridge are open, while the lanes headed toward Tampa are closed due to storm debris.

The Courtney Campbell Causeway is still closed.

— Shauna Muckle

1:09 p.m.: Hillsborough lifts Zone A evacuation order

Hillsborough County has rescinded the evacuation order for Zone A residents as of 1 p.m. today, according to county officials.

Residents of Shell Point and Dana Shores neighborhoods are advised not to return home due to impassable roads in the areas as of early Friday afternoon.

— Hannah Critchfield

1:00 p.m.: Man in his early twenties killed by falling sign in Tampa

The man killed by a falling freeway sign in Tampa last night was a 23-year-old Gibsonton resident, according to Florida Highway Patrol.

The man was a passenger in a Honda Odyssey traveling west on Interstate 4 around 8 p.m. on Thursday, accompanied by three others from the unincorporated community.

As their car approached 21st Street, a freeway sign fell, killing the man. None of the other occupants were harmed.

This is a developing story.

— Hannah Critchfield

12:37 p.m.: Home or car damaged? How to handle insurance

Thousands of Floridians saw their homes or vehicles damaged by flood or wind from Hurricane Helene.

If you’re one of them, that means dealing with your insurance companies.

Here’s how to contact your carrier — and what to expect next.

— Lawrence Mower

12:37 p.m.: ‘It’s all gone,’ a Madeira Beach resident reflects

Residents wandered through the middle of Gulf Boulevard in Madeira Beach on Friday, only hopping to the sand-strewn sidewalks to let police SUVs and firetrucks pass.

It was silent except for the hum of generators and the distant whine of alarms blaring from the Barefoot Beach Club.

In the midday heat, the standing water that had pooled along side streets gave off a noxious odor. A complex bouquet of gasoline, waste and rotting seaweed.

Nick Watkins sat by the side of the road, waiting for the bridges to open. His mother was on the mainland, he said, ready to pick him up once the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office gave the all clear.

Watkins managed to move to Madeira Beach when he got a job at Sculley’s Seafood Restaurant 15 years ago. He’s doubtful about when he’ll be able to return to work.

“My place, it’s all gone. Maybe my job too,” he said. “I’m too stressed to be thinking about it right now.”

— Ian Hodgson

12:24 p.m.: St. Pete rescues underway

As of Friday morning, St. Petersburg crews rescued 70 individuals.

Forty were taken to the shelter at Gibbs High and 30 opted to stay with a friend or family member. No deaths were reported.

— Colleen Wright

12:15 p.m.: Portable toilets head to St. Pete, residents lack working bathrooms

The city of St. Petersburg has known since at least 2022 that its lowest-lying sewage plant, the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility, could not handle 7 feet of storm surge.

The city pulled the plug on that facility at 10:46 p.m. Thursday night, after thousands of households in the city’s most low-lying areas were out of power, flooded and unable to leave. Residents in northeast St. Petersburg — 25% of the city’s total population — cannot flush the toilet, shower or put anything down the drain or sewage for at least 48 hours.

There is a risk that sewage may back up into people’s homes and create sanitary sewer overflows.

For days, Mayor Ken Welch has said the city was anticipating a historic storm surge of 5 to 8 feet. At a news conference Friday morning, Welch said upgrades to the facility began under his administration two years ago. He said $70 million is being spent on that project that is expected to wrap up in 2026.

“We’ve known for some time that that was the lowest plant since it was built, I think in 1955,” Welch said. “It’s always been susceptible to that amount of unprecedented storm surge. It’s the most storm surge St. Pete has ever had.”

Asked why the city did not give residents a heads up that there was a possibility they wouldn’t have a bathroom to use for two days, Welch said the area was already under a mandatory evacuation zone order. Much of the area affected, residences east of Interstate 275 and north of 30th Avenue North, were not under evacuation.

Asked how thousands of households are supposed to go to the bathroom, Welch said the city hired a contractor to bring in portable toilets. Emergency manager Amber Boulding said 15 trailers, each with 10 bathrooms, are headed to St. Petersburg. It’s not clear where they are being installed.

“The risk has always been there,” Welch said. “We handled it the way we thought was appropriate.”

— Colleen Wright

12:09 p.m.: Johns Hopkins closes outpatient facilities, cancels annual run

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg reported that all of their outpatient facilities will be closed Friday as storm impacts are assessed. Patients would be contacted about rescheduling appointments, a hospital spokesperson said.

The hospital resumed its normal visitation policies and non-emergency surgeries, though officials cautioned patients and visitors against travel to the hospital due to flooding and dangerous conditions throughout west Central Florida.

The annual Run for All Children, which had been scheduled for Saturday, has been canceled and will not be rescheduled, the hospital announced. The hospital will share additional information about the run in the coming days.

— Dan Sullivan

12:09 p.m.: The Lightning, Rowdies postpone weekend games

The Lightning postponed Friday night’s preseason NHL game at Amalie Arena against the Nashville Predators.

The game has been rescheduled for Oct. 7 in Tampa.

The Rowdies’ soccer match against Hartford Athletic, set for Saturday at Al Lang Stadium in downtown St. Petersburg, also was postponed. No makeup date has yet been announced.

— John Romano

12:07 p.m.: Davis Islands residents survey damage

On Davis Islands, furniture lay strewn outside door fronts as residents and business owners pushed water out of their dwellings and decided what they could keep — and what they had to part with.

The night before, many rescue calls had been made from the island. Two homes had caught on fire. Tampa’s mayor, Jane Castor, said she was stunned by how much of the island remained underwater early Friday when she flew over.

The man-made island was developed in the 1920s from mud dredged from the bottom of Tampa Bay and initially designed to be a resort community. In the years since, it’s been home to the likes of Tom Brady, Steven Stamkos and Derek Jeter.

As Sam Cochrane, 26, walked on to the island that was initially only allowing emergency vehicles, SUVs and trucks, he worried about those with deeper roots to the enclave. He’d only lived there about four months, but had met people whose tenure spanned 50 years.

He’d asked neighbors who had been around much longer if they planned to evacuate, and most seemed confident that things would be fine.

“No one expected this much storm surge,” he said.

— Divya Kumar

11:50 a.m.: Sunshine Skyway Bridge partially reopened

The northbound lanes of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge have reopened, joining the Howard Frankland and Gandy bridges in a partial reopening.

Check here for updates on bridge openings.

— Shauna Muckle

11:49 a.m.: ‘Minimal damage’ to Florida prisons, thousands evacuated

Florida prisons have no “critical infrastructure” damaged in Hurricane Helene, according to a Florida Department of Corrections spokesperson on Friday.

Other facilities did sustain damage, but the department is still conducting assessments. Taylor Correctional Institution, which sits in the county where Helene made landfall, sustained minimal damage. The facility is storm-hardened and sits in an elevated spot, the spokesperson said.

The Taylor prison wasn’t listed as one of the facilities evacuated ahead of the storm, based on the corrections department’s latest update from Tuesday night. In their latest report, they announced moving 4,630 people to more secure facilities.

— Romy Ellenbogen

11:47 a.m.: Howard Frankland partially reopened

The southbound lanes of the Howard Frankland, heading toward St. Petersburg, have reopened.

The northbound lanes remain closed after fierce waves from Tampa Bay swept in a coating of storm debris last night.

The westbound lanes of the Gandy Bridge are also open, while the eastbound lanes remain closed. Other bridges, like the Courtney Campbell Causeway and Sunshine Skyway Bridge, are closed.

Check here for updates on bridge openings.

— Shauna Muckle

11:47 a.m.: Tampa and St. Pete airports reopen

Tampa and St. Pete-Clearwater international airports reopened Friday morning after avoiding catastrophic damage from Hurricane Helene.

At Tampa International, operations staff determined the airport had not sustained significant damage from the storm. Dozens of employees stayed overnight to open the airport as quickly as possible Friday morning.

St. Pete-Clearwater airport also reopened Friday morning. The airport was in a mandatory evacuation zone for Pinellas County.

Both airports were closed to commercial traffic all day Thursday as the region prepared for Helene’s landfall.

Peter O. Knight Airport, on Tampa’s flooded Davis Islands, is still closed.

— Shauna Muckle

11:39 a.m.: ‘The worst flooding Gulfport has ever had’

More than seven feet of water smashed into downtown Gulfport late Thursday night, flooding the historic casino, all the beach bars and businesses and homes up to four blocks from Boca Ciega Bay.

Waves from Hurricane Helene shattered windows and walls, rolled five big boats across the bay — over the beach and into the road — and slammed floating docks into streets and sidewalks.

Friday morning, residents, town officials and National Guard members ventured out to assess the damage, and see what could be salvaged.

“It’s the worst flooding Gulfport has ever had – in the more than 100 years we’ve been a town,” said Gulfport events supervisor Justin Shea, who was shaking his head in front of the Casino, where water had climbed the seven stairs and spilled into the ballroom.

The seawall was smashed along Shore Drive.

Across from the pier, O’Maddy’s Bar and Grille had waves swirling two feet deep through the dining room. Storm surge ravaged the outdoor bars and decks at Neptune’s Grill and Little Tommie’s Tiki. Along the waterfront, the street was filled with beer bottles, broken dishes, soggy boxes. Knee-high water flowed through the recreation center. Inside a broken window of Beach Bazaar, trays of costume jewelry were covered in mud.

Residents were stacking soaked furniture and rugs on curbs, shoveling out what was left of their living rooms, sorting through stuff floating along the brick streets. Were those files? Or photos?

At 10 a.m., Beach Boulevard was still closed from 30th Avenue South to the water, and police were shooing everyone away.

“Downtown is still evacuated,” Shea said. “We’re waiting for the water to drain, and urging people not to come back until it’s safe.”

— Lane DeGregory

11:37 a.m.: Hillsborough officials ask residents to minimize water use

Hillsborough County officials asked residents west of Interstate 75 and south of the Alafia River to minimize water usage Friday morning because of damage to a pump station near Apollo Beach.

Storm surge from Hurricane Helene damaged the South County Waste Water pump station, officials said. Personnel will repair the station once flood water recedes.

Until then, residents are asked to minimize bathing and showering, toilet flushing, dish washing and laundry.

— Dan Sullivan

11:33 a.m.: Boat rescues underway

Daniel Bishop steered his airboat through coffee-colored floodwaters in Crystal River in the early hours Friday, scouring the streets for signs of life.

Under a sky lit only by a sliver of moon, he checked in on those who shrugged off mandatory evacuation orders and offered help to those who were injured, trapped or scared.

Hurricane Helene’s deadly march through Florida unleashed record-setting surge. Bishop had already plucked almost two dozen people from water-swallowed streets by 6 a.m.

He hoisted a lady with a walker ashore and rescued a man who fled wearing only a T-shirt and underpants. He saved a couple who lost control of their SUV when the road began to “fill up like a bathtub,” he said.

The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office said midmorning Friday that more than 100 residents and 50 pets had been rescued by their deputies and good Samaritans. Bishop, 40, has been driving airboats for most of his life. When Hurricane Ian struck the Fort Myers area almost two years ago to the day, Bishop raced south to rescue people there, too.

“I just want people to be OK,” he said, cruising down W State Park Street. He volunteered to help with the Helene rescue effort, he said, because it was the right thing to do. Plus, over Labor Day Weekend, Citrus County deputies helped him when his boat broke down. So, to repay the favor and with the storm fast brewing, he told them: “If you need anything, just call.”

And they did.

Mayor Joe Meek said Crystal River, population roughly 3,500, had received an “unbelievable amount of water.” The city was about 100 miles southeast of landfall.

Bishop began his rescue soon after midnight, dodging downed power lines and cars bobbing down the street.

As the hours passed, the night sky softened with hints of blue and the sun drenched the streets in a cantaloupe glow.

“I’m sure there’s people still stranded that need to be found,” he said, pushing on.

— Olivia George

11:16 a.m.: Residents face ruined homes

It took Charlie Ludwig, 71, three hours to clear the debris from his front door. Inside, the house was a total write-off, he said.

He and his wife Berry, 76, had just finished putting $20,000 worth of renovations into their Boca Ciega Isle home, where they’ve lived for 25 years. After three feet of storm surge, everything would have to go.

Like so many barrier island residents, they remained at home despite the calls to evacuate, lulled into a sense of security after watching so many storms pass by.

“We were sitting on our lawn chairs watching the surge come in when I thought, ’Oh, this is different,’” Ludwig said.

He and Berry climbed into bed, hoping the water would recede. When the surge crested their mattress, they retreated to a neighbor’s home to watch their home succumb to the storm.

— Ian Hodgson

11:10 a.m.: Floodwaters are receding

Floodwaters are receding across Tampa Bay, and it appears the worst of the inundation is over.

Port Manatee reached high tide Friday morning just before 10 a.m. – the last of the region’s local tidal gauges to do so. The water was about 2 feet above the normal high tide, but much lower than it was during its overnight peak, when it reached 6.4 feet above normal levels.

All five of the region’s monitors surpassed the previous highest storm surge on record – set at the East Bay monitor during Hurricane Idalia. That measurement was 5.7 feet of surge. Last night, measurements well above 6 feet were recorded across the region. All of the gauges reached the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s criteria for “major flooding.”

The East Bay monitor again has the highest surge on record for the area, peaking at 7.8 ft above its normal cycle around midnight.

— Teghan Simonton

11:05 a.m.: Fires posed challenges in Tampa

Several house fires raged in Tampa Thursday night and into early Friday morning as the floodwaters rushed into homes and likely interacted with electrical wiring.

In the Sunset Park neighborhood, the red lights of four fire engines colored the Friday dawn, firefighters beating back the last remnants of a fire that sent white smoke pluming from a home. A chest-high water mark dotted the wall on the edge of the property.

The firefighters took turns strapping on their oxygen masks and stepping inside the building — and then coming out looking sooty and spent.

It had been a long night.

Those not dousing the flames slumped against the trucks and traded stories about a night of nonstop calls, “and it wasn’t even a direct hit.”

As they walked in and out of the house, they joked about a potential source of breakfast protein: an enormous catfish swimming in the water around their ankles.

A few streets away, Max Ceratti, 19, emerged from his neighbors’ house for the first time since the storm.

He and his family had watched in horror as floodwaters bubbled up between the tiles of their home — and just kept rising. They frantically began checking for Airbnbs on higher ground around midnight, he said, but anything remotely dry was snatched faster than they could type their booking information.

Out of options, they waded through a strong current to take shelter with the people across the street.

As Ceratti and his mother and sister stepped back into their home for the first time, they noticed that a mattress was floated off of its frame by the surge. Everything was dripping. They don’t have flood insurance, he said, because they were remodeling.

His mom quietly began to mop.

— Emily L. Mahoney

11:00 a.m.: Five people died in Pinellas, officials say

Five people died in Pinellas County during the impact of Hurricane Helene, according to Cathie Perkins, emergency management director. Of the fatalities, two occurred in Treasure Island, two were in Indian Rocks Beach and one was in Dunedin, according to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

At least two were drownings and the others remain under investigation, but all were storm-related, Gualtieri said. Read more here.

— Tracey McManus

10:48 a.m.: Video footage shows damage around Tampa Bay

10:43 a.m.: Clearwater authorities detail damage

Clearwater first responders rescued more than half a dozen people overnight who called 911 for help as their homes were inundated with flooding from Hurricane Helene, according to spokesperson Rob Shaw.

Most of the rescues were on Clearwater Beach, which was under a mandatory evacuation beginning on Wednesday due to the projected storm surge. Valves measured peak surge at 6.67 feet on the beach.

“That seemed to be the common theme — nobody had ever seen flooding like this before,” Shaw said.

Shaw said police and fire crews used a dump truck, inflatables and high water vehicles to help get to residents. In one instance, he said, a good Samaritan took two police officers on his jet ski to rescue an elderly woman who was trapped in her home.

“It was a very bad night and morning here,” Shaw said.

Shaw said there were seven fires reported on the beach, but crews could only get to three of them immediately because water was too high. At least three of the fires resulted in a total loss of the residences.

Officials have closed access to Clearwater Beach due to the debris, flooding and damage. Shaw said there is about six feet of sand on South Gulfview Boulevard.

“You can’t even tell there’s a road there, it’s like a giant snow drift of sand,” he said.

— Tracey McManus

10:40 a.m.: People band together in St. Pete Beach

For Jon Yousef and Ann-Louise Abbott, who rode out Hurricane Helene in their second-floor apartment in St. Pete Beach, the storm came in a hurry.

First the floodwaters covered the street. Then, in the time it took Yousef to retrieve a kayak from his car, water had climbed another step or two toward the apartment. Eventually it reached his downstairs neighbor’s doorknob. Yousef and Abbott were soaked in sweat after their power went out, but they stayed clear of the water. And they offered their balcony to others who were attempting to ford the flood, including a woman with a cat on her head and two people who had just met that day, seemingly while partying ahead of the storm.

“In a moment like that, they didn’t seem like strangers,” Yousef said. “They just needed help.”

The couple was standing on a corner by city hall, where a Ford Expedition had plunged nose-first into a drainage ditch. They were heading back home to retrieve belongings, then hoping to hike far enough out of town to get an Uber — and, hopefully, find a dry place to spend the night.

— Jack Evans

10:37 a.m. Tampa General ‘AquaFence’ holds, hospitals report no major impacts

Tampa Bay area hospitals reported no major impacts from Hurricane Helene early Friday as they worked to return to normal operations throughout the region.

At Tampa General Hospital, a long watertight barrier known as the AquaFence shielded the building against storm surge that otherwise inundated the low-lying Davis Islands neighborhood. Video taken about 10:30 p.m. and shared on social media showed Dustin Pasteur, the hospital’s vice president of facilities and construction, inspecting the perimeter as floodwaters pressed against the long, thin barrier.

The AquaFence stands about 5 to 10 feet high and completely surrounds the hospital. Tampa General, the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, sits in an area that is particularly vulnerable to flooding during storms. Its newer area were built with hurricanes in mind. They include an energy plant that sits 33 feet above sea level and is designed to withstand a severe hurricane.

The hospital continued to treat patients throughout the storm. Although the bridges onto Davis Islands were closed due to flooding, the hospital’s emergency departments were open Friday morning and operating as normal.

Tampa General’s emergency centers further north in Citrus County remained closed while personnel assessed if they were safe reopen. Clinics and nonemergency facilities were also being assessed Friday morning.

BayCare, which operates 16 hospitals in West Central Florida, including St. Joseph’s in Tampa, St. Anthony’s in St. Petersburg, Mease Countryside in Safety Harbor and Morton Plant in Clearwater, reported Friday morning that they’d had no significant impacts or evacuations.

— Dan Sullivan

10:10 a.m.: Davis Islands basically underwater, mayor says

At a news conference Friday morning, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said two people in Tampa have died as a result of the storm.

One person died Thursday after an I-4 exit sign fell on their vehicle, and a woman in her late 70s was found in her water-filled home Friday morning. Police are still investigating.

Police chief Lee Bercaw said the police department responded to 150 to 200 calls for service last night. They rescued 52 people and 8 pets, he said.

The rescue calls came largely from David Islands, South Tampa and Palmetto Beach. Two houses on Davis Islands caught fire, Castor said.

Castor said after surveying the city from a police helicopter that Davis Islands is “basically still underwater.”

“Just about every single street on Davis Islands has standing water,” she said. “Those streets are going to remain flooded for quite awhile.”

Bercaw warned against walking or driving in standing water. Residents are asked to stay indoors until the city provides more information.

Fire chief Barbara Tripp told people to assume downed power lines are live and to report them at 877-588-1010. Tripp also warned against keeping generators in garages or allowing them to get wet.

Several street lights and 11 wastewater pump stations have gone down due to flooding. Residents are warned against walking through water.

— Divya Kumar

10:05 a.m.: Mobile home park in shambles

People who moved to a mobile home park in the Bay Pines area of Pinellas County thought it would be safe from storms like Helene. But on Friday they found their homes in tatters, blasted to bits from the powerful hurricane. ”It’s a complete disaster,” one resident said. “It’s horrible.” Full story here.

— Max Chesnes and Ian Hodgson

9:58 a.m.: Westbound lanes of Gandy reopen, other bridges closed

The westbound lanes of the Gandy Bridge reopened Friday morning. The eastbound lanes remain closed for debris removal.

The Howard Frankland Bridge and Courtney Campbell Causeway, as well as the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, remain closed.

In photos provided by the Florida Highway Patrol, northbound lanes of the Howard Frankland were covered in debris early Friday morning. Light posts were toppled, and patches of the shoulder had eroded and broken off after contending with Tampa Bay’s high waters last night.

The highway patrol must assess the damage on each bridge before opening them back up to drivers. By 7 p.m. yesterday, all bridges across Tampa Bay had closed as the storm intensified.

— Shauna Muckle

9:49 a.m.: DeSantis reports another storm-related death

A second person in Florida was killed during Hurricane Helene, but “thousands” of people were saved by state and local search and rescue teams, state officials said Friday morning.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said the person was killed when a tree fell on their Dixie County home. Search and rescue crews were able to respond to all emergency calls they received overnight, DeSantis said Friday.

Officials are working to restore power to about 1.2 million customers and clear debris caused by the Category 4 storm, which made landfall in Taylor County with 140 mph winds about 11 p.m. Thursday night.

Interstates 10 and 75 have been cleared of debris and are back open.

Helene largely followed the same path as hurricanes Debby and Idalia, devastating some of the state’s most rural counties but largely sparing Tallahassee, DeSantis said. Reports from those counties is that the damage from Helene was worse than both of those storms combined.

Earlier projections showed the storm heading west of Tallahassee, which would have battered the tree-dense city.

“That would have been more damage in the capital,” DeSantis said. “Here in the (state emergency operations center in Tallahassee), we had very little, relatively speaking, compared to what I think people were thinking about 24 hours ago.”

Residents are urged not to drive around to damaged areas. Homeowners should call their insurance company as soon as possible if their homes were damaged by the storm.

DeSantis said he was going to go observe some of the damage on Friday.

— Lawrence Mower

9:32 a.m.: A scene from North Shore Park

Nobody was playing volleyball at North Shore Park on Friday morning.

A few people on nearby benches — usually occupied by spectators — marveled at a capsized boat sitting close to the shore. Tree branches and broken lampposts littered short stretches of the trail.

Water at North Shore Park had mostly receded, but in some low-lying parts of the path there was about an inch of water creeping over the sidewalk and onto the manicured grass.

Still, it seemed business as usual for North Shore bikers, walkers and joggers, who continued with their day. In the distance, sirens wailed.

— Shreya Vuttaluru

9:29 a.m.: A night spent asleep on a countertop

When he agreed to house-sit for a friend in Madeira Beach, Andrew Swan left his truck at a Publix on the mainland, tied down the friend’s boat and expected maybe a few inches of water to intrude the house.

But the water kept rising Thursday night, eventually plateauing just above his belly button.

“Nobody here has ever experienced anything like it,” he said Friday morning on the road off the island.

Swan, a 31-year-old real estate broker and landscaping company owner who lives in St. Petersburg, spent the evening trying to keep important documents above the water line. He eventually fell asleep on a countertop, towels rolled up for pillows, his legs draped over the stove.

Through it all, he said, he felt surprisingly calm. But it made him think: about his parents; about the grueling duathlon — a 224-mile bike ride followed by a 52-mile run — he’s training for; and about the girl he’s trying to woo.

Has he called her yet?

“Yeah, I talked to her,” he said with a grin. Later, he added: “It’ll be a good story.”

— Jack Evans

8:23 a.m. Footage of flooded mobile home park

Reporter Max Chesnes captured drone footage of the damage from storm surge at the Harbor Lights Club mobile home park in Pinellas County.

8:16 a.m.: Alarms ring out as people assess damage

The sun broke through the gloom at 8 a.m. and painted the causeway to Indian Rocks Beach a soft gold. Pelicans perched on the pilings below, and a lone, shirtless figure hosed off a dock.

On a normal day, it would have been a placid scene. But on Friday, the man on the dock stood beside an upturned sign for jet ski rentals. The only traffic was that of firetrucks, bulldozers and pickups loaded with traffic cones. The sound of fire alarms filled the air.

— Jack Evans

7:44 a.m.: Treasure Island hit hard

Waters appear to have receded on the Treasure Island Causeway, where the town’s iconic pirate cutout is still standing to greet visitors.

Thursday morning, it’s unclear when residents who evacuated will be allowed back in their homes: Police have closed access to the barrier islands as reports of devastation along Pinellas beaches flooded in overnight.

In a video posted by the city of Treasure Island on X, boats picked up by floodwaters and hurled into homes could be seen piled up along the causeway. Local businesses, like the R Bar on 108th Avenue, were inundated by floodwaters, according to a post on the city’s Instagram.

— Jack Prator

7:37 a.m.: Empty, broken boats pile up

Near the boat ramp under the Belleair Causeway — right by a staging area for disaster recovery equipment — is one sign of Helene’s wrath: boats that had slammed into the seawall were caught among drowned vegetation.

— Jack Evans

7:25 a.m.: Calls for help continue in Pinellas

In Pinellas, more than 7,000 911 calls have rolled in over the past 24 hours, authorities report. Officials said call volume remains high, with emergency response ongoing around the county.

7:18 a.m.: A scene from Palmetto Beach

The Palmetto Beach neighborhood had a faint briny smell as piles of seashells and flopping fish lay in the park right before dawn.

Fist-sized chunks of the sea wall littered the street.

Clarissa Lucky sang to herself in the dark, her voice echoing over the remaining floodwaters from storm surge as she strolled in her robe.

In a matter of just a few hours, water went from her family’s front yard to banging on their glass front door and spilling in from the baseboards. They fled to the second story, she said.

But this morning, Lucky sang, “Count It All In Joy.”

“I’m so grateful,” she said. “Because everybody I love is OK in this house.”

— Emily L. Mahoney

6:58 a.m. Thousands called 911 in Pinellas

As of 2 a.m. Friday, Pinellas County had recorded about 4,000 storm-related 911 calls and 500 water rescues, a spokesperson said. An estimated 37,000 structures were flooded countywide.

— Jack Evans

6:49 a.m.: Photos of the damage

Even before the sun rose Friday, Hurricane Helene’s destruction was evident. Tampa Bay Times photographers captured images of the aftermath around the region, which you can view here.

6:17 a.m.: Authorities stress shelter in place

Authorities stressed to the public that just because the storm had passed didn’t mean it was safe to explore. Tampa Bay residents are urged to shelter in place as officials work to restore traffic signals and reopen bridges. Across Tampa Bay, rescues are ongoing.

6:16 a.m.: Tampa mayor updates city on recovery

In an early morning news conference, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor complimented the efforts of her city’s first responders to help residents who failed to heed evacuation orders.

Officials got some 150 calls from people who needed help as the city flooded, Castor said. So far, first responders have saved 47 people and eight dogs, she said. (Some residents called the city back to say they no longer needed help as the water receded.)

Now that Helene has passed, the city has some recovery to do, Castor said. The bridges on and off Davis Islands have not yet opened. A city wastewater pump was failed because it was inundated.

Conditions may still be dangerous, the mayor said, urging people not to go exploring before city officials deem it safe.

“We are going to assess the ability to open things back up,” Castor said.

— Kirby Wilson

6:10 a.m.: In Pasco roughly 200 needed rescue

The Pasco Sheriff’s Office said it received roughly 200 calls for people stuck in flooded areas. The calls were beginning to slow around 6:00 a.m., the agency posted on X.

6:00 a.m.: “There’s water in the house!”

CRYSTAL RIVER — Her son’s shouts woke Renee Lewis early Friday morning.

“There’s water in the house!” he said, the cry ringing out in the predawn darkness.

As Helene swirled fast and furious over Florida, Lewis’ home in Crystal River was inundated.

Lewis said she had no idea her neighborhood was part of a mandatory evacuation zone.

“We never seen a storm like this,” she said, standing barefoot on the sidewalk, her shoes lost along her trudge through flooded streets to safety. “And I’m born and raised here.”

Crystal River Mayor Joe Meek said on Facebook early Friday that the city, population roughly 3,500, had received an “unbelievable amount of water” during Helene.

— Olivia George

5:53 a.m.: A storm unlike others

Across St. Petersburg late Thursday night and early Friday morning, you heard a similar refrain from residents about Hurricane Helene: This is flooding like we’ve never seen before. From Shore Acres to downtown and out to Gulfport, the water piled up higher in the places that usually flood, and even pooled in some areas that don’t as often. Read the full story here.

— Michaela Mulligan and Lauren Peace

5:44 a.m.: More than 100 call for rescue in Pasco

Help was badly needed in Pasco County, officials reported. More than 100 people called for water rescue, with authorities able to help 65 people as of just before 4:00 a.m., the Pasco Sheriff’s Office posted on X.

5:38 a.m.: “We assumed we’d stay dry”

CRYSTAL RIVER – Sarah Cribbins thought her family would be safe.

“We didn’t flood during Idalia. We assumed we’d stay dry,” she said. “Not today.”

Instead, water gushed into her Crystal River home in the early hours of Friday as Helene pummeled Florida.

She and her 11-year-old-son clambered into the bed of their Dodge Ram for safety, cowering from the whipping winds and the rising water. Another family member dialed 911.

Cribbins recounted the ordeal moments after disembarking an airboat after being rescued by the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office.

“I beat cancer. I’m not going to let this storm beat me,” she said. Her shih tzu-Yorkie mix, Sushi, panted in her lap.

Beside her sat her son, Michael.

He’d wanted to bring his Transformers toys on the rescue boat. But they were too cumbersome to carry.

Instead, he placed them on top of his bed before he fled, hoping they’ll be dry when he returns home.

— Olivia George

5:34: Numbers on Tampa response

Tampa officials provided an update on rescue efforts as of 4 a.m., noting heavy flooding in the area posed serious challenges. Several people found themselves in dangerous situations throughout the night, a release said.

By the numbers so far:

• Evacuation/Water Rescue: 78

• Downed Lines: 46

• Road Obstructions: 56

• Request for Fire/Medical: 3

• Traffic Signal Malfunctions: 19

• Downed Trees: 12

5:22 a.m.: Search and rescue to begin at Treasure Island

Help is on the way for those in Treasure Island. Officials announced search and rescue teams were headed to the island, with help from rescue crews from Broward County and Oklahoma.

5:12 a.m.: Officials plan to check bridges

Tampa Bay residents waking up for their morning commutes might be wondering: When will the region’s major bridges reopen?

Officials closed the Howard Frankland, Courtney Campbell, Gandy and Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridges Thursday as Helene began to lash at the Tampa Bay region.

Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie told Spectrum Bay News 9 that before they could be opened again, state inspectors would have to ensure the roadways are safe.

“They’re going to get out there very, very quickly,” Guthrie said. “They’re going to do what they need to do to get those bridges back open.”

— Kirby Wilson

4:52 a.m.: Record high flooding left Hillsborough scrambling

RIVERVIEW – Angela Berdequez and Tony Maiorana had planned to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Helene.

They were renting his sister’s house on the Alafia River and had heard the warnings about storm surge.

But Maiorana had to work late Thursday at his job in a grocery store and, by then, they thought the worst of the storm may have passed.

Five hours later, they waded through waist-high black water in pitch darkness to escape floodwaters on the verge of penetrating their home. Maiorana carried Zeus, their Chihuahua, to safety.

“Oh my god my stuff is going to be ruined,” Berdequez said on a call to her sister. “My car is ruined; the airbag went off. You can’t even push it out of the way.”

Hurricane Helene struck at night along the Alafia River, not with wind and rain but with storm surge that stranded cars and trucks and seeped into homes.

As forecast, the river saw record flooding with water reaching 9.4 feet high at 1 a.m. Friday, nearly two feet higher than during Hurricane Idalia and almost 3 feet above the previous record high.

Read more here.

—Christopher O’Donnell

4:41 a.m.: Recovery begins in Citrus County

Swaddled in a blanket, lifelong Crystal River resident Celestine Cox stood at a flooded intersection a block from her home just before 4 a.m. Friday.

“I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Cox, 78, water nearly lapping at her slippers.

She’s been up all night, frantically checking in with her daughter who lives 80 miles south in the flood-prone neighborhood of Coquina Key in St. Petersburg.

Now, the impacts of Hurricane Helene had reached her own community. The flooded intersection was ablaze with the flashing lights of at least half a dozen Citrus County Sheriff’s Office vehicles, stationed there to assist with airboat rescue efforts.

“I just pray everyone is OK,” Cox said, before heading back to her own home for some rest. “And I hope the water doesn’t come any closer.” — Olivia George

4:33 a.m.: Gulfport residents survey the damage

In downtown Gulfport, Hurricane Helene’s wrath was abating around 3:30 a.m., but some water still sloshed near the end of Beach Boulevard S.

The surge had left behind debris reflecting the gulfside town: a massive dock, beer cans, fruits and vegetables, a beach chair.

Meaghan Ryan, 41, came down early Friday to check on the restaurant she manages, the Tiki Bar and Grill, for the third time in the past 24 hours.

Ryan, echoing others across southern Pinellas, said she had never seen water levels like this before. She had come to the restaurant earlier on Thursday, when water reached her hips.

Ryan looked out at the scattered remains on the road.

“This is just devastating,” she said.

Among the debris, she found a stool from her restaurant.

On it, it read: “In spite of ourselves we’ll be dancing at Tiki.”

She took it home with her. —Michaela Mulligan

4:17 a.m.: More Helene casualties reported, this time in Georgia

The death toll of Helene appears to be at least three.

The first reported death came in Tampa, Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed late Thursday night.

Two more reportedly died in south Georgia by what the Associated Press called a “possible tornado.” The two deceased killed were in a mobile home at the time, Georgia’s Wheeler County Sheriff Randy Rigdon told WMAZ-TV.

4:05 a.m.: 4 hours after landfall, Helene still a hurricane

Georgia was still feeling hurricane-force winds from Helene nearly four hours after the storm made landfall, according to an update from the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.

The storm’s effects were expected to linger, with storm surge being felt along the Big Bend region.

The update offered one bit of good news: “Winds will be gradually diminishing through the morning.”

—Kirby Wilson

3:50 a.m.: Hundreds of thousands still without power in Pinellas and Hillsborough

Even as Helene moved into Georgia, hundreds of thousands in the Tampa Bay region remained without power early Friday morning.

Nearly a quarter-million Duke Energy customers in Pinellas County were powerless, and another 89,000 TECO consumers were left in the dark.

—Kirby Wilson

3:31 a.m.: Access to Clearwater Beach cut off

Clearwater city officials said in a news alert early Friday morning that “access to Clearwater Beach will remain suspended until further notice,” including to residents who evacuated.

The alert, sent out just after 3 a.m., said that roads, businesses and homes “were inundated with several feet of water. Even after the water levels recede, much debris remains on the roads and it is unsafe to travel to the area. The debris must be removed before the beach can be reopened safely.”

The alert also noted that “multiple high-water rescues from homes on the beach and mainland were conducted late Thursday and early today by the police and fire department.”

— Chris Tisch

3:25 a.m.: South St. Petersburg wasn’t spared

South of the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus, roads were engulfed in a murky tide along Fourth Street.

Neighborhoods along the street were not spared from Hurricane Helene’s storm surge.

Despite a slowly receding surge around 3 a.m., the homes around 13th Avenue South and Fifth Street South near Bartlett Park were a hair above the highest water levels. A street over, where a felled tree blocked the brick road on Newton Avenue, water was deeper. No one stirred from their homes or made a noise, except for a chorus of screeching frogs.

— Michaela Mulligan

3:09 a.m.:

INTERSTATE 10 — Fallen trees blocked lanes on the main highway between Tallahassee and Jacksonville, where Helene’s fierce eyewall raced through Florida.

One backup was full of 18-wheelers near Greenville, stuck at a standstill.

The air smelled of pine sap — still hours before dawn would reveal the full breadth of the historic hurricane’s devastation.

— Zachary T. Sampson

2:55 a.m.: Harrowing accounts of record storm surge

John Broderick, 42, couldn’t wait for the rescue crews any longer when he was treading water in his house in Tampa, struggling to breathe.

When the storm surge invaded the Palmetto Beach neighborhood late Thursday night, he said it seemed to rise by multiple feet every few minutes. It was coming too fast. The water triggered his natural gas lines, stinging his eyes and making him gasp for air as the flooding reached his roof.

So he took his cat and swam.

The wind was so strong it took him 5 hours to get less than a mile, the water so strong it ripped his shirt off his body. Partway through, he found an 8-foot metal boat attached to a trailer and cut it loose with the knife in his pocket, he said, climbing aboard and rowing with a shovel floating nearby.

He lives in evacuation zone A, but he didn’t think it would be like this. In Hurricane Idalia last year, the water only came to his porch steps.

Read more here.

2:37 a.m.: DeSantis gives storm updates, confirms first hurricane death

One person has died so far from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Taylor County around 11 p.m. on Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference.

The person was driving on I-4 near Ybor City in Tampa “when a sign fell onto the highway,” DeSantis said. The hurricane is sustaining winds up to 140 miles per hour.

”That just shows you that it’s very dangerous conditions out there,” DeSantis said. “You need to be right now just hunkering down.”

“When Floridians wake up tomorrow morning, we’re going to be waking up to a state where very likely there’s been additional loss of life,” DeSantis added.

DeSantis said that while the storm was making landfall in North Florida, Southwest Florida and Tampa Bay were both seeing “really significant amounts of [storm] surge.”

”There’s going to be streets that are flooded and will continue to flood all up and down the west coast of Florida,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis and Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie cautioned Floridians in the morning to not wade into standing water, to be careful when getting on ladders, and to not use generators inside their house.

”The state is ready as soon as this storm passes and it’s safe to do so to commence search and rescue operations,” DeSantis said.There are state guards, state troopers, local first responders and 3,500 national guards standing by for when the storm passes, DeSantis said.

Tens of thousands of linemen are ready to deal with power restoration from companies like TECO, Duke Energy and Florida Power and Light. The Florida Department of Transportation will be focused on road clearing, inspecting bridges and pumping water out of flooded areas.

Anyone who needs non-emergency state assistance should call 1-800-342-3557.

⁠— Alexandra Glorioso, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

2:10 a.m.: St. Petersburg’s Shore Acres blocked by police

Roads toward Shore Acres, the lowest lying neighborhood in St. Petersburg, were blocked off by police late Thursday. One officer said roads were impassable.

According to David Noah, a Shore Acres resident, tides had risen nearly to the height of a stop sign. Noah, who elevated his home 16 feet in 2019, said tides were higher than he’d ever seen — by at least a few feet.

Noah described bleeping cars swamped by flood waters. He suspects hundreds of homes are flooded in the neighborhood.

Images from Noah’s street show homes and fences inundated and palm trees blowing from gusty winds.

Further south, the city’s iconic Vinoy Resort put the area’s flooding on stark display.

—Michaela Mulligan and Lauren Peace

2:02 a.m.: Helene weakens over land

Helene’s winds now blow at about 90 mph miles per hour — far lower than the raging gusts of 140 mph unleashed at landfall, the National Hurricane Center reported in its Checklists for building all kinds of storm kits..

However, much of Florida, including the Tampa Bay region, continued to be under a storm surge warning early Friday morning. That means officials continued to project potentially life-threatening flooding.

The worst of the storm is now headed for Georgia.

—Kirby Wilson

1:55 a.m.: A Floridian’s “paradise,” now underwater

After evacuating 10 miles away, there was little for Kris Knutson to do as Hurricane Helene pounded Florida’s Gulf Coast other than watch the destruction of her single-story Hernando Beach home through her Ring security cameras.

In grainy black and white, she watched the water rise and rise — and rise.

“There isn’t a driveway, a street or distinguishable canal,” she told the Times in the early hours of Friday morning. “It’s soul crushing.”

Knutson, 48, said she witnessed minimal damage during Idalia and Debby, so she “didn’t think it was going to be so catastrophic.”

She moved to the neighborhood in western Hernando County five years ago, drawn by the tight-knit community, the bird watching and the chance to see dolphins from her backyard.

“It’s a dream paradise,” she said.

Now, that paradise was underwater.

-Olivia George

1:48 a.m.: Widespread flooding in Gulfport

It took Megan Schmalz, Brandon Midyett and Austin Shaw more than an hour to crawl from Gulfport to their home just north of 58th Avenue on Fourth Street.

The three drove to Gulfport earlier in the evening to check on Shaw’s grandparents.

“It’s worse than anything I’ve seen before,” Shaw said of the surge. “The water was up at least 5 feet.”

As peak surge sent water coursing across Fourth Street around midnight, Midyett walked barefoot beside their sedan while Schmalz steered to try to avoid stalling out.

“We’re doing what we have to do to get home,” Midyett said.

-Lauren Peace

1:33 a.m.: More scenes from the St. Petersburg flooding

Just after midnight Friday morning, cars crawled down Fourth Street in St. Petersburg, mindful of the rising water.

In the last half hour, ballooning tides had swamped the heavily trafficked street, which is lined with businesses and apartments.

Errant car horns blared in parking lots where flooding was worsening. Some sat in their cars, while others had simply abandoned them.

—Michaela Mulligan

1:21 a.m.: Helene weakens to a Category 2

Hurricane Helene weakened within hours of landfall early Friday morning to a Category 2 storm, according to the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. Its winds remained upward of 110 mph.

The storm had slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 storm just southeast of the capital at about 11:10 p.m. Thursday.

1:14 a.m.: Pasco County deals with massive floods

Even in the predawn dark of Friday morning, Deanna Shepard can tell the damage to her waterfront home in Sea Pines, about 2 miles north of Hudson Beach in western Pasco County, is severe.

Soon after midnight she told the Tampa Bay Times there was about 5 feet of debris-strewn water engulfing her ground-floor garage. Her truck is flooded, the horn going off.

“I almost floated away a few times trying to grab floating dock boxes, kayaks and large pots,” she said. “Not worth it to save stuff.”

Meanwhile, she added, neighbors are weaving through the flooded streets on jet skis.

— Olivia George

1:05 a.m.: Tallahassee breathes a sigh of relief?

Florida’s capital city was supposed to get clobbered head on by Helene. But the storm wobbled east, making landfall outside the city.

On social media, residents and journalists posted videos, with many still reporting devastating weather and power outages in tree-packed neighborhoods.

But the overall consensus was that the city had been spared the worst.

12:49 a.m.: The property insurance fallout of Helene

With such widespread devastation, one might expect Florida’s property insurance crisis to worsen after Helene. But insurance companies aren’t so sure.

Here’s why.

12:35 a.m.: A scene from flooding in St. Petersburg

Just blocks from Edwin Sprague’s home, the 56-year-old sat in his pickup at a stop sign near SE Lincoln Circle N and First St. N in St. Petersburg.

He watched as another pickup attempted to navigate the flooded street just after 11 p.m. Police blocked Sprague’s usual path home. He had been out with friends to have a few drinks and went back to a buddy’s house. Sprague watched as the other truck was forced to turn around, away from the murky brown water that had begun to creep up driveways. Sprague said he had never seen water so high near his home.

“I stayed out too long,” Sprague said. After contemplating his options about 5 minutes, he decided to walk home. He trudged through hip-deep water in canvas shoes and khaki shorts.

When he rounded the corner, his wife, Kayla, and daughter, Meredith, were standing in the driveway.

Though water had coursed into their neighbor’s home, the Spragues’ house was unaffected as of 11:30 p.m. But the water was still rising.

“We are very lucky. We used to live in Shore Acres. Our house flooded front to back from Eta and Idalia,” Kayla Sprague said. “I have PTSD from that. I sympathize.”

— Michaela Mulligan and Lauren Peace

12:23 a.m.: Storm surge not confined to Tampa Bay

Helene’s effects are being felt all around Florida’s Gulf coast. A local reporter posted a video to X late Thursday night of a flooded street in Sarasota — some 200 miles south of the storm’s landfall.

12:10 a.m.: Helene almost in Georgia

The worst of Hurricane Helene ripped through the Florida panhandle in the span of about an hour.

The National Hurricane Center reported in a midnight update that Helene’s “catastrophic winds” would soon hit southeast Georgia.

The government forecasters urged people in the area to stay inside even amid the relative calm of the storm’s eye.

Even as the worst of the storm persisted, officials said to expect dangerous conditions for several more hours. Helene is massive.

12:01 a.m.: A recap of Thursday’s action

On Thursday, Helene left the Tampa Bay with record storm surge.

In St. Petersburg, the city had to cut power to a reclamation facility, meaning homes in the northeast part of the city would have to refrain from flushing toilets or showering for days.

More than a million Floridians were left without power, including hundreds of thousands in Tampa Bay.

After strengthening all day Thursday, forecasters expected Helene to weaken after making landfall. But not before inundating Florida’s Big Bend region — and beyond.

For all of Thursday’s developments, check out our running updates from an eventful 24 hours here.

• • •

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