Welcome to the news hour. In the span of 24 hours, Helene in the Gulf of Mexico has

strengthened from a tropical storm into a hurricane. Over the next 24 hours,

it's expected to grow even stronger, and it's barreling straight toward Florida.

Floridians have been filling sandbags preparing to hunker down in the face of heavy rains, storm surge, and floods.

Earlier today, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents to act now.

I have time to make the preparations and put your plan in place today,

but that time is running out this storm I

think as you know is basically in the area of Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula

it's moving past that and then it's going to have pretty much a clear runway in the Gulf of Mexico.

Current forecasts show Helene will arrive as a dangerous category for hurricane tomorrow.

Jamie Rome is the deputy director of the National Hurricane Center and he joins us now

from its headquarters in Miami.

Thanks for being with us.

So Jamie, where is Helene right now

and what will the next 24 hours look like?

Helene is centered down here just to the north of Cancun, Mexico.

It's now emerging out over the open waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico where conditions a spear especially favorable for development possibly significant development and we anticipate Helene to go on and become a major hurricane

before it tracks somewhere here over the Florida Panhandle or Big Bend region late on Thursday.

And what about the potential, Jamie, for storm surge and flooding?

What does that look like right now?

Unfortunately, it has increased over the last 12 hours,

with the wind increase and the size increase that we have been talking about all day

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