One day out from Hurricane Helene's record-setting havoc around Florida's Big Bend, relief workers, politicians and clean-up crews made a push.

Tropical storm force winds began battering Florida on Thursday as Hurricane Helene prepared to make landfall, with forecasters warning that the enormous storm could create a “nightmare” surge along the coast and

By Rich McKay, Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) -Powerful storm Helene officially became a hurricane on Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Center said, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) as it churned in the eastern Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.