(Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Helene barreled into the western coast of Florida, packing dangerous winds and threatening to unleash deadly flooding across several states.

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Helene made landfall near Perry with top sustained winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said. It was a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

Helene has plowed ashore in Florida’s rural Big Bend region, near the state’s capital Tallahassee that has a population of about 200,000. Governor Ron DeSantis said it would be one of the strongest storms to strike at the city in memory.

Its massive size means it’s expected to bring torrential rain and severe flooding to cities hundreds of miles away, including Atlanta and Asheville, North Carolina. It will trigger widespread power outages and has already disrupted ground and air travel.

Total damages and economic losses may reach $15 billion, depending on how long Helene can sustain its most dangerous winds, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research. Helene is the fourth hurricane to hit the US Gulf Coast this year.

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