Cities across both counties spent the early hours of Friday morning clearing debris from the storm's high winds. No significant flooding reported.

Helene is now a hurricane and is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rains to a large portion of Florida and the southeastern United States, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

Tropical storm force wind gusts, brief tornadoes, flooding rain could be possible through Thursday night, NWS states.

Check here for updates on closures, weather forecasts and more in Volusia and Flagler counties as Hurricane Helene approaches on Wednesday.

I only left my house once and that was for Andrew.” Santini was among a steady stream of DeLand residents that arrived Tuesday to take advantage of free sandbags provided by the city, as elsewhere other residents made a run on bottled water,

Forecasters expect conditions to start to deteriorate late Wednesday. Make final preparations now.