Hurricane Helene live updates: 43 dead across the South

After blood shortages in August, the American Red Cross told ABC News the organization's blood supply is no longer at emergency levels, but encouraged people in areas unaffected by Hurricane Helene to donate.

Ahead of the storm's landfall in Florida, the Red Cross sent hundreds of blood products to Florida, and distributed blood products to ensure blood remains available for patients in the affected areas.

"Our immediate concern is the potential interruption of our blood collection efforts in the Southeast due to Hurricane Helene. We anticipate a number of blood drives in the impacted areas to be canceled or otherwise affected in the coming days, disrupting our ability to collect necessary and lifesaving blood products," a Red Cross spokesperson told ABC News.

"We really need people in unaffected areas to step up and donate blood to help make up for the uncollected donations that will result from Hurricane Helene," the spokesperson added.

Vice President Kamala Harris began a White House event on gun violence Thursday by first addressing Hurricane Helene, forecast to make landfall in Florida tonight.

"The president and I, of course, are monitoring the case and the situation closely, and we urge everyone who is watching at this very moment to take this storm very seriously and please follow the guidance of the local officials," Harris said.

Harris said she and President Biden will continue working with state and local officials "to ensure that everyone is safe and to protect communities before, during and after the storm," Harris said.

Helene is still expected to be a hazardous Category 4 hurricane when it makes landfall in Florida Thursday between 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. ET, with winds of at least 130 mph.

Currently a Category 3 hurricane, Helene's maximum sustained winds have increased to 125mph with higher gusts. Additional strengthening is likely to continue leading up to landfall.

At 5:00 p.m. ET, Helene was located 130 miles west of Tampa and 175 miles south of Tallahassee.

Helene is a very large storm with hurricane-force winds extending outward up to 60 miles from the center and tropical-storm force winds extending outward up to 310 miles from the center.

-ABC News' Melissa Griffin

Airlines have canceled more than 1,200 flights across the country as Hurricane Helene moves in.

The airports seeing the biggest impacts are Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers and Tampa International Airport.

Tampa International Airport, Tallahassee International Airport and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport are all closed on Thursday.