Tampa and St. Pete-Clearwater international airports reopened Friday morning after avoiding catastrophic damage from Hurricane Helene. At Tampa International, operations staff determined the airport had not sustained significant damage from the storm.

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.

As Hurricane Helene approaches landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm, some parts of Tampa are already experiencing excessive rain and winds.

Thursday night, crews prevented drivers from going across the bridges to and from Davis Islands because of flooding from Hurricane Helene

People can be seen with boats and playing in flood waters with children and pets ahead of Hurricane Helene's arrival in Tampa, Florida on Thursday.

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

One person has died so far from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Taylor County around 11 p.m. on Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference. The person was driving on Interstate 4 near Ybor City in Tampa “when a sign fell onto the highway,