I'm Wolf Blitzer in the situation room as we continue. Our special coverage of the major breaking news. Hurricane

Helene is picking up speed right now and strengthening as it churns along Florida's

Gulf Coast on a potentially catastrophic collision

course with what's called that big bend region between the Peninsula and the

Panhandle. Our correspondence are in the path of the storm right now as

Helene gets closer and closer to landfall, likely as a monster category four

hurricane. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in

Apalachicola for us in Florida right now Derek.

You're in that big bend area facing the brunt of this storm.

What are you seeing right now? What's your sense? of this is

is definitely the strongest

what's your sense what we're experiencing this is definitely the strongest

winds the heaviest rain that we've had over the past, well, the entire duration

of this storm so far, and just to give an example of the water here is pulling off the ground

extremely saturated. We've had nearly 8 inches of rain since yesterday.

Stop suddenly starting to teeter back and forth as the wind from these auto bands make their way

into the Appalachian Cola region where I am. The storm is just so big. So we know that maybe

we're going to be on the western side of this storm as it makes Lantau,

kind of targeting that Taylor County region with a big bend, and we may be on that outer

side. But the wind field is so large, some of the largest wind fields that a hurricane ever

recorded in modern history in the Gulf of Mexico and that

means that impacts will be felt well outside of that center of the storm where we

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