Hurricane Helene barrels toward Florida with fierce winds, storm surge

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00:00Strong winds and heavy rains battered this tourist resort on the coast of Mexico as Hurricane

00:06Helene brushed past the Yucatan Peninsula.

00:10In downtown Cancun, residents waddling in waist-high water said the intensity of the

00:15storm took them by surprise.

00:18It's dangerous.

00:20The storm wasn't supposed to be too bad, but as you can see, it actually was.

00:23Everything is flooded.

00:26Hurricane Helene made its way across the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, gaining strength

00:30and speed, and seemed to be on a direct collision course with Florida.

00:35Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency and warned the storm was likely

00:40to intensify further before making landfall in the Big Bend area on Thursday.

00:46It could hit as a major hurricane.

00:48Some models even have it as a Category 4, but I think a lot of people are expecting

00:52at least a Category 3.

00:54It is a fast-moving storm.

00:55Again, you have time today to do what you need to do.

01:00Once it gets tonight into tomorrow, you're going to be out of time.

01:06Heeding official warnings, Tallahassee residents were filling up sandbags and boarding up their

01:11homes with a relative sense of urgency.

01:15You get used to it.

01:16I've been in Florida my whole life.

01:17It's always at least four or five hurricanes every year.

01:20You get used to it.

01:21But these last couple of years, the hurricanes are getting really, really bad.

01:24I've got a bad feeling about this one.

01:26We've never taken that direct hit.

01:27It's supposed to be moving fast, so I'm worried about the winds, we're in the water.

01:32With tropical force winds already reaching 140 kilometers an hour and expected to penetrate

01:38hundreds of miles inland, Helene is forecast to be one of the largest storms to hit the

01:43Gulf of Mexico in several years.

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