Hurricane Helene Begins to Unleash Impacts as Major Bridge Closes

The Howard Frankland Bridge in Tampa Bay closed on Thursday afternoon as Hurricane Helene began to unleash on Florida’s west coast.
Helene became a tropical storm on Tuesday morning and is expected to make landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Thursday night. As of Thursday afternoon, Helene was classified as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of 125 mph. Experts believe it will continue strengthening until it makes landfall as a Category 4.
As Helene approached the Florida coastline, it began to bring storm-related impacts to Tampa Bay. Videos revealed extremely poor conditions on the Howard Frankland Bridge as it was battered by high winds and storm surge.
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“I’m STUNNED they have not closed the Howard Frankland Bridge in Tampa Bay. This was the live look at 3:21 with the chop from #HurricaneHelene Please stay off the bridge!” Bay News 9 anchor Jeff Butera posted on X, formerly Twitter, with a video of waves and wind lashing the bridge.
“WILD to see how much water is already splashing over the Howard Frankland Bridge in Tampa. Even crazier the bridge is still open,” Chris Conte posted on X.
Not long after, the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) posted that the Howard Frankland Bridge, as well as the Skyway Bridge, had both closed because of the storm’s impact.
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“Motorists should stay off the highways,” FHP Tampa posted.
The Courtney Campbell Causeway also closed.
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Hurricane Helene is expected to remain off the Tampa coastline, but the impacts are still expected to be strong as the storm continues its north-northeastern trek toward Florida’s Big Bend region. As of Thursday evening, many weather-related warnings were in place for the Tampa region, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Alerts included a tornado warning, storm surge warning, hurricane warning, tropical storm warning, coastal flood warning and several others.
NWS meteorologist Ali Davis told Newsweek that the most dangerous storm-related impact for Tampa will be storm surge.
“As the eye is passing parallel to our shore right now, we are starting to see that storm surge start to increase again,” Davis said.
Davis anticipates that the storm surge will peak during overnight hours, making it particularly dangerous, given the darkness. Tornados also are posing a danger to the Tampa area.
Peak storm surge could bring seawater 10 to 15 feet above ground in some surge-prone areas, NWS Tampa warned.
“Life-threatening and historic storm surge possible,” the storm surge warning said.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has repeatedly warned about storm surge with Helene, as the surge will be considered “unsurvivable” when the storm makes landfall in the Big Bend region. Many counties have ordered mandatory evacuations, including Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located. The NHC has urged residents to take evacuations seriously.