breaking these out of Florida as Hurricane Helene speeds through the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm is expected to make landfall just south of Tallahassee within the next few hours.

Now right now Helene is an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane with maximum

sustained winds of 140 miles per hour. So far more than 545,000 households in Florida are reportedly without power and

thousands have been ordered to evacuate from their homes. As you can see from

these satellite images, Helene is huge and is expected to affect nearly the entire state of Florida

with damaging winds and heavy rain. Still what may bring the most danger are the

storm surges. Earlier today residents experience flooding in

places like Pine Island which is just outside of Fort Myers. But flooding

will likely get much worse across the state as the night continues. A storm surge warning is in place for almost

the entirety of Florida's West Coast. This video is a simulation of what could happen if the storm surge rises to approximately 10 feet.

But in some parts of Florida, officials warned that Hurricane Helene could cause storm

surges of up to 20 feet,

around double the amount shown in this simulation.

And those officials are calling that level of storm surge

potentially unservivable.

Earlier today, the first bands of wind and rain lashed the Tampa Bay Area, giving us just

a taste of the strength of the storm, a strength that is not expected to weaken once it makes landfall.

Five states, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina have all declared states of emergency.

And more than 40 million people are either under a hurricane

or tropical storm warnings. For more on all of this joining me now is NBC

news correspondent Kathy Park. She is live from Tallahassee, Florida.

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