Fresh Take Florida
Florida braced for damaging winds, a storm surge that could reach 18 feet in places along the Gulf Coast and flooding rains as Helene officially became a hurricane on Wednesday headed toward the Sunshine State.
Gov. Ron DeSantis warned it could intensify as much as a Category 4 hurricane as it passed over warm Gulf waters before making landfall as early as Thursday afternoon. The National Hurricane Center said the surge of seawater along the coast could be as high as 18 feet.
Across Florida, thousands of people across at least 16 counties were ordered to evacuate their homes or trailers and flee inland or seek higher ground. More than 832,000 people live in Florida’s Big Bend region and nearby counties where Helene was expected to hit hardest on Thursday as a major hurricane.
“You can hide from the wind — and there will be significant wind on this storm — but you got to run from the water,” DeSantis said Wednesday at a briefing in Tampa Wednesday morning.
Earlier in the week, DeSantis issued a state of emergency for 61 of the state’s 67 counties, covering more than 16 million residents.
DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, the state’s top emergency management official, warned of life-threatening storm surges and flooding, as well as potential tornadoes and winds reaching 125 mph or more.
“The hazards from this large storm, over 250 miles from the center, will be far, far reaching,” Guthrie said.
They spoke from inside the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, which DeSantis warned might not survive the hurricane because its roof hasn’t been strengthened since the administration of Gov. Lawton Chiles in the 1990s. Backup state employees were working in Escambia County at the tip of the Panhandle, in case disaster strikes.
“This building has never really been tested in terms of how it would handle a major hurricane,” DeSantis said. “The walls apparently were built to a Category 5 specifications, but back in ‘96 they didn’t have enough money to make the roof Category 5 specification.”
DeSantis added: “It should be fine, but we’ll see.”
Guthrie urged residents in storm surge areas to evacuate.
“I’ll say this comically — me and my brother over here, we’re both 6-foot-3 tall, give or take. That’s a point of reference. You cannot survive that. If you’re in an area that’s going to have five to eight foot, 10- to 15-foot of storm surge, you cannot survive that,” he said.
DeSantis warned residents to expect power outages. He encouraged residents to gather the necessary materials to tolerate days without power. Those materials include extra batteries, flashlights, nonperishable food and water.
“It’s not a matter of whether we’re going to get effects, it’s just a question of how significant those effects will be,” DeSantis said.
Three Florida counties — Franklin, Taylor and Wakulla — issued total mandatory evacuations Tuesday. Over a dozen others, including Charlotte, Citrus, Dixie, Gulf, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota counties, issued partial evacuations.
The Governor said 62 hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities evacuated the Gulf coast.
The Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, Jared Perdue, said the agency was monitoring major interstates and helping evacuations. When highway speeds fall below 45 mph, transportation teams open the emergency shoulders.
Additional fuel was brought into the state to allow residents to fill their tanks during evacuations. DeSantis reported lines at gas stations in Tallahassee but didn’t expect major shortages.
The Governor warned impacts could be seen as far as 250 miles from the center of the storm.
Ahead of anticipated power outages, around 21,000 linemen were on standby to restore power once conditions were deemed safe, with more linemen on the way, DeSantis said. The Governor also has 3,500 National Guardsmen at the ready, with an ability to deploy 2,000 more.
Ahead of the hurricane, Florida State University and the University of South Florida closed campuses throughout the week starting Wednesday. The University of Florida canceled classes for Thursday but said it expected to reopen Friday.
Public School Districts across the state also canceled school and extracurricular activities because of the impending storm.
Helene would be the third hurricane to hit the Big Bend in just over a year. Hurricane Idalia — the last hurricane to hit Florida as a Category 3 — slammed the coast in August 2023, while Category 1 Hurricane Debby hit the region in early August.
Some longtime residents were sticking it out rather than heeding mandatory evacuations. Michael Jenkins, a 69-year-old Wakulla County resident, wasn’t leaving and expected many others to do the same.
“Most of these redneck residents around here are going to stick a finger up, hold an American flag in the other hand and say, ‘I ain’t going nowhere,’ and they would pretty much be powerless to enforce that,” he said.
However, he strongly encourages people to comply with the evacuation order.
Toni Raffield, a 36-year-old Franklin County resident, rode out Hurricane Michael in Gulf County while working as a correctional officer. There, she saw massive storm surges sweep over nearby cars, she said.
“It was a sight, like a PTSD moment,” she said.
With livestock, chickens, children and dogs at home, Raffield originally planned to stay. Then conditions worsened Wednesday, so her family left toward Santa Rosa further west in the Panhandle.
The historic fishing village of Cedar Key, which suffered a fire on Dock Street earlier this month, was also expected to experience Helene’s effects. Kegan Ward, 31, bought water and essentials for her family to stay during the storm. In the meantime, she was preparing the Jiffy Lube where she works for the storm surge, stacking items as high as possible to minimize flood damage.
Frequent storms mean local officials can prepare faster, said Taylor County Commissioner Jim Moody.
“We’ve been through this so much, we just fall into routine,” he said.
Horseshoe Beach Mayor Jeff Williams said officials spent the past two days working with residents and encouraging them to seek safety in other counties. On Tuesday, the Town Council had an open meeting to provide details on hurricane preparation, and on Wednesday, Horseshoe declared a curfew while the evacuation is in effect.
The coastal city only has about 200 full-time residents with an average age of 67. Williams spent the week helping citizens gather their belongings and get out of town, but this isn’t his first hurricane.
“I hate to say it this way, three storms in 13 months, we’re starting to get proficient at storm preparation and storm recovery,” Williams said. “Hopefully, we will get everyone out and we’ll just then do what we have to do.”
The Mayor already plans to deploy search and rescue when the conditions are safe, as he expected Horseshoe to flood. He also expected help to come in hordes. The quiet town housed thousands following Debby and Idalia.
“Your friends and family would call you tomorrow and say, ‘I’m very sorry you had this happen to you. We’ll be there tomorrow,’ and tomorrow you’ll have 10 of your friends and family members here to help you clean up the mess,” Williams said.
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporters can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.
