Special: Hurricane Helene moving in now: Florida, Georgia and other parts of the eastern US

Hurricane Helene is tonight going to make landfall around Florida’s Big Bend as a major tropical storm, bringing “unsurvivable conditions” due to a coastal storm surge near the centre of the hurricane up to 20 feet (6 metres). Destructive large waves are on top of that 20 foot storm surge. At the time of recording this (6pm Thursday, ET/10am Friday NZT) Helene had sustained winds of 125mph (200kmh) and gusts to 155mph (250kmh). The storm is very large, covering 400 miles (645km) across with tropical storm force winds. Helene is also tracking very quickly northwards overnight tonight. Keep up to date with official warnings from local authorities and the National Hurricane Center as tracking, maps, totals and timings may still change in the coming hours. This was a snapshot of conditions and forecasts just as severe weather was setting in and ramping up on Thursday PM Eastern Time. Our thanks to the CNN Weather Center for use of their Storm Tracker maps.