JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Hurricane Helene, which struck the Florida Big Bend region in late September 2024, was the second most deadly hurricane since Hurricane Katrina, according to a newly released report from the National Hurricane Center.
From the shocking surge in Tampa Bay to the unprecedented inland tornado outbreak, Helene’s devastation extended far beyond its landfall point, proving that hurricanes can cause life-threatening hazards hundreds of miles from where they come ashore.
The post-storm assessment on Helene showed that hurricane winds penetrated unusually far inland, even reaching the mountains of North Carolina, because of the storm’s rapid landfall speed at 31 mph. It packed Category 4 winds of 138 mph.
While the focus was on its catastrophic landfall, the hurricane’s record-breaking storm surge in Tampa Bay and destructive tornado outbreak far inland made it uniquely devastating across a vast area.
Record flooding vs. Catastrophic surge
The storm surge from Helene had two drastically different but equally devastating impacts: Extreme flooding in the Tampa Bay area and a historic storm surge along the immediate landfall zone in the Florida Big Bend.
In Tampa Bay, Helene produced the highest storm surge ever recorded in the region, exceeding the previous record set by Hurricane Elena in 1985.
Some of the most severe surge impacts included:
- 7.2 feet above Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) at Maderia Beach, causing extensive flooding in low-lying neighborhoods.
- 6.83 feet at Old Port Tampa, leading to structural damage and road washouts.
- 6.31 feet at St. Petersburg, surpassing the previous record of 3.97 feet.
- 6.04 feet at Port Manatee, inundating coastal communities.
The sheer size of Helene’s wind field, with tropical-storm-force winds extending 360 miles from the center, played a crucial role in pushing water into Tampa Bay despite the storm making landfall over 150 miles north.
Extreme storm surge at landfall
In contrast, the Big Bend region saw an overwhelming 12 to 16 feet of storm surge, the highest in the storm, devastating small coastal communities:
- Keaton Beach and Steinhatchee experienced entire homes being swept off foundations. Some structures were found miles away in marshlands.
- A high water mark of 15.3 feet above MHHW was recorded inside a damaged building in Steinhatchee.
- Cedar Key recorded 9.3 feet of storm surge, breaking its all-time record set just a year earlier by Hurricane Idalia (6.89 feet in 2023).
- Waters reached over 14 feet above normal along the Steinhatchee River, marking one of the worst inland flooding events in Florida’s history.
Tornadoes: Hidden inland danger
While the public’s attention was fixed on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Hurricane Helene spawned a deadly tornado outbreak across the southeastern U.S., with 39 confirmed tornadoes—some of them hundreds of miles away from landfall.
Most tornadoes were in the Carolinas: While Florida and Georgia saw a few tornadoes, South Carolina recorded 21 tornadoes with nine in North Carolina.
An EF-3 tornado in Nash County, North Carolina, caused widespread destruction, making it one of the strongest hurricane-spawned tornadoes on record in the state.
A massive EF-1 tornado in Cordova, South Carolina, set a record for width at 1,100 yards, the widest tropical cyclone tornado in U.S. history.
The tornadoes were fueled by Helene’s fast-moving nature, which increased wind shear and instability far from the storm’s core.
Top tornado-producing hurricanes in U.S. history:
- Hurricane Ivan (2004) – 120 tornadoes
- Hurricane Frances (2004) – 103 tornadoes
- Hurricane Beulah (1967) – 115 tornadoes
- Hurricane Katrina (2005) – 57 tornadoes
- Hurricane Rita (2005) – 48 tornadoes
- Hurricane Helene (2024) – 39 tornadoes
Wind and trees prove most deadly
Helene’s winds are responsible for 65 of the storm’s direct deaths - the most direct wind deaths from any tropical cyclone in the continental United States going back to at least 1963.
Of the 65 direct wind fatalities, 61 were caused by falling trees during the storm.
Reports from official state government sources as well as media reports indicate that Helene is responsible for a total of at least 175 direct deaths in the United States. All 14 storm surge fatalities were in Florida.
Hurricane Helene’s deadly combination of record storm surge, extreme inland flooding, and a widespread tornado outbreak makes it one of the most unique and devastating hurricanes in modern U.S. history.
With 249 total fatalities, $78.7 billion in damages, and over 7 million power outages, Helene’s impact will be studied for years to come as a reminder of the far-reaching dangers of major hurricanes.