However, much of Florida, including the Tampa Bay region, continued to be under a storm surge warning early Friday morning. That means officials continued to project potentially life-threatening flooding. The worst of the storm is now headed for Georgia.

Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall in Florida Thursday evening but is already impacting the Tampa Bay area.

Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater will experience hurricane-force winds and catastrophic storm surge due to the storm’s huge wind field, despite being far from the forecast landfall region.