There was a calm before the storm inside of Fox Weather HQ early Thursday evening. Hours before Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm, the network’s team diligently prepared for the hours of coverage to come.
In a series of photos taken around 5 p.m. ET and shared with TVNewser, hurricane specialist Bryan Norcross and meteorologist Kendall Smith can be seen reporting on Helene’s path towards the Sunshine State.
“It’s eerie to see the life-threatening events that we talked about for days happen in real time,” Norcross observed to us via email as he watched conditions intensify. “The extraordinary storm surge heights and wind speeds that we warned about were suddenly occurring. We just hope that people take the warnings seriously.”
Those warnings certainly seemed to be heeded. By the time Helene touched down in Florida around midnight, many residents had left their homes and businesses. Reports of power outages, dangerous winds and flooding followed the storm’s landfall and continued as it swept into neighboring Georgia. As of now, the death toll stands at 41 across four states, including North Carolina and South Carolina.
Asked to describe the mood in the studio as images of Helene’s landfall rolled in, Smith recalls a “somber” feeling among the crew. “Our team knew the gravity of the situation and that the aftermath would be completely devastating,” she notes. “There was very much a sense of responsibility to keep the public as informed and safe as possible.”
