Many unaware of major tropical threat brewing in the Gulf of Mexico

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bill Wadell was on the Gulf coast on Sept. 23, asking beachgoers about their preparations for a storm AccuWeather has been warning people about for days but that many don't realize is coming.

Transcript

00:00right now. Let's go out to Bill Waddell. Bill arrived in Panama City Beach,

00:05Florida yesterday afternoon, right around the time that AccuWeather again

00:09was the first to issue that track and intensity forecast for the upcoming

00:14storm. All right, Bill, you're there alive this morning. And what are what

00:18are people talking about? What are people saying when it comes to this

00:20hurricane threat?

00:23Yeah. Ariella Bernie. The things that people are saying are extremely

00:27concerning to meteorologists. We've been hearing what storm, what hurricane

00:31most of the people we've been talking with knew that there was some trouble

00:35brewing in the tropics, but they did not realize how serious and imminent

00:39of a storm threat this is. That's extremely concerning when you're

00:42hearing from more and more people who say they don't realize that there's a

00:45hurricane expected to impact this area when we're dealing with such warm

00:49waters out in the Gulf of Mexico and the concerns of rapid development,

00:53rapid intensification and hurricane impacts in this area in less than 72

00:59hours. That is why AccuWeather expert meteorologists were the first to issue

01:03that track and intensity forecast, trying to warn people about the

01:07imminent threat, helping them get prepared for this storm. And you could

01:11see it's a beautiful morning out here at the beach. No signs that there's

01:14trouble out in the tropics going to be bringing some serious impacts here in

01:17just a few days. And looking by the video, we haven't seen any sense of

01:21urgency here in the Panama City Beach area. No digital message boards are up

01:25yet with warnings. It was a beautiful evening at the beach, but we do expect

01:29this to change. We'll likely be hearing from more officials later today and

01:32tomorrow morning, urging people to prepare. A major hurricane threat for

01:36the panhandle of Florida brings back many tough memories of Hurricane

01:40Michael for a lot of locals. The six year anniversary is just a few weeks

01:45away. Michael was one of only four storms to make landfall in the U. S. As

01:49a devastating category five hurricane. Sharon Gillespie says parts of Panama

01:54City Beach and Mexico Beach are still recovering and other areas will never

01:59look the same.

02:01Some people moved away, never came back. Some of us stayed and actually saw

02:08community come together. You know, the support that came among each other, the

02:12towns around and even from far away. We had some volunteers come down trying to

02:19help make a difference in our community. So really nice.

02:26Yeah, Sharon says she is taking this forecast in stride and she is going to

02:29be getting prepared today. But she knows that a forecast like this can be

02:33incredibly nerve wracking for a lot of Hurricane Michael survivors. And again,

02:37we haven't seen much as far as any storm preparedness today, but that is

02:41expected to change over the next 24 hours. Guys will likely be hearing more

02:45from emergency officials will be seeing those digital warnings going up on

02:49message boards. But at least at this point, it's a quiet, beautiful morning

02:53here at the beach. But we are starting to hear more people talking about the

02:56storm threat and needing to take this one very seriously. Yeah, Bill, Adele,

03:00very sobering message, I'm afraid. But that's the problem with homegrown

03:04development. That's the concern. As you mentioned, you don't have 7 to 10 days.

03:08There's no official word that this is even a storm yet, and it probably won't

03:13be officially a storm until later today.

03:17I hope everybody was watching Accuweather.com and the Accuweather

03:21Network. If they were, they'd be prepared for this storm. Bill, Adele, you'll have

03:24reports throughout the day. Thanks.

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