Florida residents are battening down the hatches as Hurricane Helene bears down on the upper Florida coast, scheduled to make landfall at some point on Thursday night. Residents of the “Sunshine State” are all too familiar with the protocols and procedures needed in advance to a major storm.
And Helene looks like she will pack quite a wallop. Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service are showing the storm aiming for the Florida peninsula. That area also is one filled with fishing villages and some residents. It’s not near a major city area, though. The hurricane apparently will keep most of her powerful winds and rains away from Tallahassee, Fla., the state capital.
Yet Helene, according to the weather charts, will grow from its current Category 2 status on Thursday afternoon to a Category 3. That falls into the window of being a major hurricane, what with winds, heavy rains, and a deadly storm surge.
Helene Packs A Powerful Punch
As of Thursday morning, Helene was about 255 miles southwest of Tampa and moving north-northeast at 14 mph with top sustained winds of 105 mph. Forecasters said it should become a Category 3 or higher hurricane, meaning winds would top 110 mph.
2:25 PM Thursday Update: Air Force hurricane hunters (@53rdWRS) find #Helene a dangerous major hurricane. The maximum sustained winds have increased to 120 mph (195 km/h). Follow the latest at https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ pic.twitter.com/ODkUzeFpc1
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 26, 2024
The Associated Press reported that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated on Thursday morning that models suggest the storm will make landfall further east. As it was previously noted, this decreases the chances for a direct hit on Tallahassee, whose metro area has a population of around 395,000.
One thing that can be counted on is running into hearty souls willing to stick out a rough storm. That’s the case for Philip Tooke, who is a commercial fisherman. He took over his father’s business that is located in Florida’s Apalachee Bay. Tooke is going to ride the storm out, something he has done before.
And he’s going to do this on his boat. Why? “This is what pays my bills,” Tooke said of his boats in chatting with the AP. “If I lose that, I don’t have anything.”
Evacuation Orders Have Been Sent Out
Still, plenty of people were not staying behind. Evacuation orders have been sent out from the Florida Panhandle headed south along the Gulf Coast. Areas included here are low-lying ones near Gainesville, Tallahassee, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa, and Sarasota.
People were making their way into shelters that had opened up. Florida residents know all about taking hurricane warnings very seriously. For one mobile home owner, Sharonda Davis, thinking about the size and power of the hurricane was too much to consider. Davis said that the storm’s size is “scarier than anything because it’s the aftermath that we’re going to have to face.”
Federal officials led by President Joe Biden have issued state of emergency warnings for those states in the storm’s path. Once the storm makes landfall, forecasters indicate that Helene will head straight north before veering off to the left. Whatever lies in her path either will feel the wrath of heavy winds and/or heavy rainfall once inland.
Floridians like Anthony Godwin, 20, were looking for gas stations to fill up their cars. Godwin stopped in one outside of Crawfordville, Fla., where the tanks were still running. He topped off his car and headed west toward his sister’s house in Pensacola, Fla.
“It’s a part of life. You live down here, you run the risk of losing everything to a bad storm,” Godwin said. He happens to live about a half-mile from the water in Panacea, Fla., a coastal town.
Don’t be surprised if news reports either as the storm hits or after it leaves show people still at their homes. Storm-battled residents all along the Gulf Coast know the routine by now. Staying behind is a personal choice residents make, of course. Yet that doesn’t mean hurricanes are not dangerous and deadly, too.
