TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) -- As Hurricane Helene strengthened Wednesday, it continued to move closer to Florida.

Even as the hurricane was about 500 miles southwest of Tampa, it had already prompted residents to evacuate, schools to close and officials to declare emergencies in Florida and Georgia. Forecasters said it is expected to become a major hurricane with its center making landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida’s northwestern coast as soon as late Thursday.

Bands of wind and heavy rain are expected to arrive even sooner. The Tampa Bay area will start to see rain bands move in Wednesday, with the heaviest after sunset. Conditions will deteriorate Thursday as rain bands become more persistent and wind picks up.

The predicted path of the storm, as forecast by the National Hurricane Center, shows Helene moving north and slightly west after making landfall in Florida. It could bring "devastating hurricane-force winds" to souther Georgia as it moves inland, the NHC said.

From there, the storm is expected to move over parts of Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and even southern parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana Friday into Saturday morning.

"Because of Helene's expected fast forward speed, damaging and life-threatening wind gusts are expected to penetrate well inland over portions of the southeastern United States, including the higher terrain of the southern Appalachians," the NHC said Wednesday.

As the storm gets closer to landfall, its path could shift. Nexstar's WFLA has a wobble tracker that shows these movements in real time.

Another map shows Helene's expected wind impact Thursday into Friday morning:

A hurricane brings high winds, sometimes enough to tear roofs off houses. But the bigger threat is flooding that can come up from storm drains in addition to water from the Gulf. More people die from flooding than from wind in a hurricane.

As Helene passes over Florida, storm surge is expected to be a big issue. Storm surge can be as high as 5 to 10 feet along the Pinellas, Pasco, and Hernando county coastlines and 10 to 15 feet along Citrus County and 4 to 8 feet in Tampa Bay itself.

President Joe Biden has been briefed on Hurricane Helene, and his administration is in touch with officials from states in the storm's path, the White House said Tuesday.

“Federal resources and personnel are prepositioned, including generators, food, and water, along with search and rescue and power restoration teams," White House spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said in a statement. “At the direction of the President, FEMA has also deployed teams to Florida and Alabama to embed with local emergency response personnel to support their efforts, as needed.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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