US-WEATHER-HURRICANE-HELENE

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Florida, on September 26, 2024 as Hurricane Helene was set to slam into the Florida coast as a "catastrophic" Category 4 storm. An increasingly powerful hurricane threatening "catastrophic," dangerous storm surges and flooding was forecast to hit Florida's Gulf coast on September 26, as thousands of residents evacuated towns along the US state's shoreline. Helene strengthened into a hurricane mid-morning September 25 in the Gulf of Mexico and is "expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds, and flooding rains to a large portion of Florida and the Southeastern United States," the National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its latest bulletin. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)