Dangerous Helene could make landfall as Category 4 hurricane

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan DePodwin says Helene could make landfall as a Category 4 storm. The storm will bring destructive winds, storm surge and catastrophic flooding to the southeastern U.S.

Transcript

00:00Dan, I know that you were watching some of the Hurricane Hunters flying on in and

00:03bringing us some interesting development here over the last hour or so.

00:07Yeah, yeah, Aurelia. The Hurricane Hunter planes are still flying in and out of Haleen. We'll be

00:10doing so all afternoon and evening, getting us the latest stats. And the most recent pass

00:15from southeast to northwest through the eye of Haleen indicated that the winds have at least

00:21maintained, if not slightly increased in strength. We'll see the latest update here in a few minutes

00:25at the 2 p.m. Eastern Advisory. But we think that Haleen will at least hold, if not slightly

00:30increased, its maximum sustained winds. The eye is tightened up a little bit too, which is

00:34an indication that Haleen is continuing to gain wind intensity as it moves off to the northeast.

00:40And gain wind intensity is what we knew was going to happen, Dan. We here at Acura have been

00:45taking a look at Haleen each and every day and keeping close eyes here. So you can see the point

00:50here of Haleen at a two, but look at the four there at landfall. Yeah, we still have about 10

00:56hours or so, eight, 10 hours until landfall later on this evening. And that is time for Haleen to

01:01still intensify over the very warm waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Still fairly low

01:05wind shear environments. That's not as disruptive to the storm. And we also look for

01:10thunderstorms all around the center of Haleen. And that's what we have seen over the last couple

01:14of hours. So there's still time for further intensification, which is why we are still

01:17concerned of a significant and catastrophic impact really for the area near landfall due

01:22to storm surge and damaging winds. And Dan, we know with tropical systems, they just hold so

01:27much moisture. But has there been anything else that we've been watching that is adding to these

01:32amounts of rain that people see on the map behind us? So the moisture for Haleen would be enough to

01:36cause significant flooding in a lot of places. But the problem here is that we've had, in some cases,

01:41eight inches of rain already before Haleen and parts of the southern Appalachians, northern

01:45Georgia. And so there's already been flooding from Wednesday night into Thursday morning in

01:49places like Asheville, North Carolina. And that's our concern with another eight inches or more on

01:54the way. And that's why this area is where we expect an extreme to catastrophic risk of flash

01:59flooding Thursday night. There could be a flooding disaster in some communities with roads washed out

02:04for days, if not weeks, and some communities could be inaccessible. So have a plan to receive

02:08flood warnings and be able to move to higher ground should you receive a warning. A very

02:12serious situation when it comes to the water. And that is why AccuWeather went with a catastrophic

02:18risk to lives and property. Dan, that's not something we issue often. No, it is not. The

02:23catastrophic risk is our highest risk level we can issue. And that's why we have that in the

02:26mountains of North Carolina. Anytime you get rain, four, five, six inches of rain in areas of

02:32significant terrain, that's when we would be concerned. And we're talking double or even

02:35triple that amount of rainfall. Really a once in a generation storm for some places in the interior

02:39southeast.

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