For several hours, the storm maintained hurricane strength as it pushed inland across northern Florida and into Georgia. By 5 a.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center said Helene was a tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph.

Helene is expected to make landfall on Florida's Big Bend this evening as a major category 4 hurricane, bringing the risk of catastrophic damage.

At least nine people have died after Hurricane Helene crashed into Florida as a Category 4 storm, pounding the west coast with “unsurvivable” conditions.Helene has since been downgraded to a tropical storm but is still packing “life-threatening” conditions as it plows across the county with a flash flood emergency issued for metro Atlanta and as far north as Kentucky’s Appalachia on high alert for heavy rains and landslides.