As Hurricane Helene swept through Northern Florida, residents across the Big Bend area are grappling with widespread damage caused by a massive storm surge.

When a major hurricane hits, it is often the storm surge — the sea or gulf water driven ashore by winds — that poses the greatest threat to people’s lives and livelihoods. The storm surge that will accompany Hurricane Helene is expected to peak on Thursday night.

Hurricane Helene tore through Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, leaving behind a trail of devastation after the Category 4 hurricane made landfall Thursday night in the rural Big Bend in Florida, the Associated Press reported.