September 27th, 2024.

Last night at about 1110 local time Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida,

where the state's panhandle cursed down toward the peninsula. It was classified as a category 4 storm when it hit,

bringing winds of 140 miles per hour or 225 kilometers per hour. The Safir Simpson Hurricane Wind

scale developed in 1971 by civil engineer Herbert Safir and meteorologist Robert

Simpson divide storms according to sustained wind intensity in an

attempt to explain storms on a scale similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes. The Safier Simpson scale defines a category 4

hurricane as one that brings catastrophic damage. According to the National

Weather Service, which was established in

1870 to give notice of the approach and force of storms, and is now part of the

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, a category 4

hurricane has winds of 134 to 156 miles or 2009 to 251 kilometers per hour.

Well-built framed homes can sustain severe damage

with loss of most of the roof structure and or some exterior walls.

Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles down.

Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will

last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.

Hurricane Helene hit with a 15 foot or 4.6 meter storm surge and left a path of destruction across Florida before moving up into

Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky with torrential rain, flash floods, high winds and tornadoes.

A record level of more than 11 inches of rain fell in Atlanta, Georgia.

At least 45 people have died in the path of the storm,

and more than 4.5 million homes and businesses

...