CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tropical storm-force winds began hitting Florida Thursday Hurricane Helene preparing to make landfall, with forecasters warning the massive storm could unleash a “nightmare wave” along the coast and bring damaging winds hundreds of miles inland across much of the southeastern U.S.

Helene, which has already strengthened into a major Category 3 storm, is expected to become even more powerful before the storm makes landfall on Florida’s northwestern coast in the evening. Hurricane and flash flood warnings extend well beyond the coast into northern Georgia and western North Carolina.

The storm’s wrath began to be felt Thursday afternoon, with water lapping over a road on the northern tip of Siesta Key near Sarasota and covering some intersections in St. Pete Beach along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Lumber and other debris from a fire in Cedar Key a week ago crashed onto land in rising waters. And winds of up to 125 miles per hour have already left about 180,000 homes and businesses in Florida without power.

Outside Florida, up to 10 inches of rain has fallen in the mountains of North Carolina, with up to 36 inches more possible before the deluge ends, paving the way for flooding that forecasters warned could be worse than anything else. over the past century.

With forecasters also warning of tornadoes and mudslides, the governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have all declared states of emergency, as has President Joe Biden for several states. He will send the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Florida on Friday to assess the damage.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning that models suggest Helene will make landfall further east than previously predicted, reducing the chance of a direct hit on the capital Tallahassee, home to about 395,000 residents.

The shift puts the storm directly toward the sparsely populated Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and resorts where Florida’s Panhandle and the Peninsula meet.

“Please write your name, birthday and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and your family can be notified,” the sheriff’s office in mostly rural Taylor County warned those who chose not to evacuate in a Facebook post. afterthe dire advice is similar to what other officials have issued during previous hurricanes.

Still, Philip Tooke, a commercial fisherman who took over the business his father founded near the region’s Apalachee Bay, plans to weather this storm as he did during Hurricane Michael and the others – on his boat. “If I lose that, I have nothing.”

However, many took into account the mandatory rules evacuation orders which extended from the Panhandle south along the Gulf Coast into low-lying areas around Tallahassee, Gainesville, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa and Sarasota.

Among them, Sharonda Davis, one of many who gathered at a Tallahassee shelter, worried their mobile homes wouldn’t be able to withstand the wind. She said the magnitude of the hurricane is “scarier than anything because it’s the aftermath that we’re going to have to deal with.”

Federal authorities organized search and rescue teams, as the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee predicted storm surges of up to 20 feet and warned they could be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Apalachee Bay.

“Please, please, please take all evacuation orders seriously!” the office said, describing the golf scenario as “a nightmare.”

Known as the Forgotten Coast, this part of Florida has been largely spared by the widespread condominium development and commercialization that dominates so many Florida beach communities. The region is loved for its natural wonders: its vast salt marshes, tidal pools and barrier islands.

“If you live down here you’re at risk of losing everything to a big storm,” said Anthony Godwin, 20, who lives about a half mile from the water in the coastal town of Panacea, as he stopped for gas before heading west toward the his sister’s home in Pensacola.

Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, school districts and several universities have canceled classes. Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed Thursday, while cancellations were widespread elsewhere in the state and beyond.

Helene was about 125 miles southwest of Tampa early Thursday evening and moving north-northeast at 23 mph with sustained top winds of at least 125 mph.

Although Helene is likely to weaken as it moves inland, damaging winds and heavy rain were expected to spread into the southern Appalachians, where landslides were possible, forecasters said. The center warned that much of the region could experience prolonged power outages and flooding. Tennessee was among the states expected to get soaked.

Helene had flooded parts of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula on Wednesday, flooding streets and toppling trees as it passed offshore and hit the resort town of Cancun. In western Cuba, Helene knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses as it swept across the island.

Helene is forecast to be one of the largest broadside storms to hit the region in years, said hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University. He said that since 1988, only three Gulf hurricanes were larger than Helene’s predicted size: 2017’s Irma, 2005’s Wilma and 1995’s Opal.

Areas 100 miles north of the Georgia-Florida line can expect hurricane conditions. More than half of Georgia’s public school districts and several universities have canceled classes. The state has opened its parks to evacuees and their pets, including horses. And curfews were imposed in many South Georgia cities and counties, including Albany, Valdosta and Thomasville.

“This is one of the biggest storms we’ve ever had,” said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who has authorized up to 500 National Guard troops.

For Atlanta, Helene could be the worst attack on a major city in the Interior South in 35 years, said Marshall Shepherd, a professor of meteorology at the University of Georgia.

Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year due to record warm ocean temperatures.

Due to further storm activity, Tropical Storm Isaac formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday and was expected to strengthen as it moves eastward over the open ocean, possibly becoming a hurricane by the end of the week, forecasters said. Officials said the waves and winds could hit parts of Bermuda and eventually the Azores this weekend.

In the Pacific Ocean, former Hurricane John became a tropical storm on Wednesday and strengthened back into a hurricane on Thursday morning as it threatened parts of Mexico’s west coast with flash flooding and mudslides. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador raised John’s death toll to five on Thursday as communities along the country’s Pacific coast prepared for the storm to make landfall for a second time.

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Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Seth Borenstein in New York; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Andrea Rodríguez in Havana; Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.