Helene made landfall late Thursday, September 26, as a major category 4 hurricane in the Florida Big Bend region just east of the mouth of the Aucilla River. At landfall, maximum sustained winds were 140 mph. It turned northward as it entered the state of Georgia, steered by a large area of low pressure to the west.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached at least 44. Helene has left an enormous path of destruction across Florida and the entire southeastern U.S.

Hurricane Helene, a powerful Category 4 storm when it made landfall, carved out a devastating path from Florida’s Gulf Coast to Tennessee. Reports of destruction and record-level flooding stretched more than 600 miles. As of Saturday, officials had reported at least 60 deaths from the storm.