CANCUN, Mexico (WFLA) – Hurricane Helene battered Cancun overnight as it moved past the coast of Mexico.
“It’s a monsoon out there. Strong winds & heavy rain. Beach gone,” X user Mchelle Koleychik wrote.
Video of heavy rains and large waves battering the coastal city was shared on social media.
In other clips, X users said they were “hunkering down” to wait out the storm.
In Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, lightning was seen flashing in the sky early Wednesday morning, as the storm passed the country’s Gulf Coast.
The storm’s center was about 110 miles (175 kilometers) northeast of Cozumel, Mexico, on Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and Helene was expected to intensify and grow as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico.
Helene became a hurricane Wednesday morning and was moving at nearly 10 mph (17 kph) with top sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) later in the afternoon, but it was expected to intensify over the warm, deep waters of the Gulf. Forecasters said it should become a major Category 3 or higher hurricane Thursday with winds above 110 mph (177 kph). Its center is projected to hit Florida’s Big Bend area, the curving stretch of Gulf coastline in the northern part of the state.
As Big Bend residents battened down their homes, many saw the ghost of 2018’s Hurricane Michael. That storm rapidly intensified and crashed ashore as a Category 5 that laid waste to Panama City and parts of the rural Panhandle.
“People are taking heed and hightailing it out of there for higher ground,” said Kristin Korinko, a Tallahassee resident who serves as the commodore of the Shell Point Sailboard Club, on the Gulf Coast about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Tallahassee.
But Robbie Berg, a national warning coordinator for the hurricane center, warned: “Please do not compare it to other storms you may have experienced over the past year or two.”
Areas 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the Georgia-Florida line can expect hurricane conditions. Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana could get rainfall. Landslides were possible in southern Appalachia, with catastrophic flooding predicted in the Carolinas and Georgia.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
