'Get out of town:' Floridians urge caution ahead of Helene

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Tony Laubach reported live from Tallahassee on the evening of Sept. 25 as heavy rain began falling and time began running out for preparations for Hurricane Helene.

Transcript

00:00AccuWeather storm chaser and meteorologist Tony Laubach. He is live in Tallahassee, Florida right now

00:05with more on how people and communities have been preparing for the storm.

00:08Tony, are people taking this storm seriously?

00:14People are taking the storm very seriously. In fact, we are as well. Notice where I'm at.

00:19I'm live in my car. Why? Because lightning is a serious issue and it is one I don't like to

00:24mess with when I've got metal tripods sticking up off the ground here. We've actually got a

00:28little squall that's coming through right now, dumping some very heavy rain here in Tallahassee,

00:32and we are seeing some lightning with this as well. Actually, I have seen some concerns for

00:39the potential for some after dark water spouts moving onshore down in St. George Island, an area

00:45we were at just several hours ago. We're seeing these squalls, these outer bands. I don't know

00:50how associated they are with Helene, but that is something where you're going to be dealing with

00:54through the night even before we start talking about landfall. But we are dealing with that

01:00throughout the day today, and folks are taking the storm very, very seriously. We've been watching

01:05folks taking those last-second precautions. Mandatory evacuation started this morning

01:09at eight o'clock for many of the coastal communities in Florida. Folks were out this

01:14morning into the early afternoon doing their last-minute prep work. That included getting

01:18sandbags placed to prevent some of the flood waters from getting in, boarding up windows and

01:22doors, and leaving. That has been a common theme for a lot of people. We've been talking to folks

01:29in coastal communities. The very few that we saw this afternoon, as many of these were very

01:35reminiscent of ghost towns, and talking to a lot of those locals, them specifying their concerns

01:41with this storm. Boarding up and preparing for probably one of the worst storms we've ever seen.

01:48I think it's going to be real bad. The tide surge is bad. We have no protection. We're looking for

01:53the worst storm we've ever seen in East Florida. We've had hurricanes, but I don't believe we have,

02:00we've never had one of this size. Prepare, protect your family and friends, and get out of town.

02:11And hopefully you've done that already, the getting out of town part of it, because

02:15you might be running into some issues. Even tonight, even our drive up here to Tallahassee

02:19became quite white knuckle in some cases. These downpours are nothing to mess with,

02:22especially after dark. It's hard to see where you might run into some flooding. Fortunately,

02:26we didn't run into any standing water. A lot of this rain is pretty new and fresh,

02:30but we are going to start adding that on. You kind of see over my shoulder some of the folks

02:34in the parking lot here with their umbrellas. And again, we've got the lightning with that.

02:37So these tropical storms, tropical rain bands with the storms rolling in are going to be

02:43having for us tonight. And of course, as we start getting closer to landfall,

02:46the conditions are just going to deteriorate quicker than you can imagine. So hopefully,

02:50if you were watching us tonight, you were watching us from a safe spot. If you were choosing to ride

02:55it out, good luck. You know, I hope you took everything seriously. And Jeff, that seems to

03:00be the common theme. Most folks taking this very, very seriously. That's certainly good to hear,

03:05Tony. We are as well, obviously, I'm glad that you're a seasoned veteran doing this. And again,

03:10you're making some wise choices in where you're going to be with this as well.

Category

Transcript

Recommended