Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 storm late Thursday, knocking out power in over a million homes and businesses and causing at least one death in the state as the National Hurricane Center warned of life threatening winds and catastrophic storm surges.

Helene strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane hours ahead of its expected landfall on Florida’s northwest coast Thursday night, and forecasters warned that the enormous storm could create a “nightmare” surge in coastal areas and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern U.