Along with flooding, damaging wind gusts up to 50-60 mph are possible early Friday morning, toppling trees and leading to more power outages.

Between 0.5 and 2 inches of rain from Helene could fall through Sunday, while the threat of severe weather and flooding probably stays to our west.

The hurricane center's forecast for Helene's rapid transition from unnamed storm to Cat 3 hurricane may be the fastest ever.

Hurricane Helene is now forecast to reach catastrophic Category 4 strength by the time it makes landfall in Florida on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center says, with storm surge potentially climbing to 20 feet along some parts of the coast.