Florida residents brace for Hurricane Helene

Wading by means of the waist-high water that was a avenue, Briana Gagnier tells BBC Information that in her 12 years of residing on Holmes Seaside she’s by no means seen such robust storm surge.

“It seems like whitewater rapids exterior,” the 29-year-old mentioned over the telephone.

“It is so robust and you’ll see all the pieces being carried away – chairs, cushions, coolers, rubbish.”

Ms Gagnier was getting a preview of Hurricane Helene, which was barrelling in direction of Florida on Thursday night time as a class 4 storm with wind speeds of as much as 130mph (215 km/h) and deemed “extraordinarily harmful” by the Nationwide Hurricane Middle.

Authorities warn it might deliver a “catastrophic” and “unsurvivable” storm surge, the place inundations might attain as excessive as 20 ft (6m).

She watched the storm rapidly strengthen from a tropical storm right into a class 4 hurricane however mentioned she felt she wanted to remain behind and attempt to shield her one-story dwelling, which sits on a barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“The water is already in our storage,” she mentioned. “We now have each sandbag attainable at each door – something to assist cease it from coming inside.”

Ms Gagnier mentioned whereas strolling by means of the world, she noticed mainly each dwelling alongside the coast with water flowing inside.

“You see photographs like this on the information however I’ve by no means seen it in my yard.”

“It is eerie.”

Anna Maria Island resident ML Ferguson instructed BBC Information that houses and companies had been seeing water gushing into buildings because the hurricane approached.

The streets now appear to be rivers, she mentioned.

Water rapidly overwhelmed the beachside bar the place she works – the Bridge Tender Inn Dockside & Tiki Bar – with waves splashing the signal and chunks of seaweed clumped close to tables.

“We’re resilient,” she mentioned. “We hold an perspective of ‘and this too shall go.'”

By the point she returned to her dwelling, water was beginning to creep up her porch.

“Oh my gosh, it is actually as much as the second step,” she instructed BBC in telephone interview. “My home is in regards to the flood.”

Ms Ferguson rapidly moved some tables so she might put issues on prime of them to stop the floodwaters from ruining belongings.

However whereas she spoke to BBC Information an individual drove down her avenue, inflicting a wake of water that splashed inside.

“The water is already coming in,” she exclaimed earlier than dashing off the telephone to attempt to cease it.

Cainnon Gregg, an oyster farmer in Wakulla County on Florida’s Huge Bend, spent the previous couple of days attempting to guard his farm by sinking it onto the ocean mattress.

His farm was destroyed as soon as earlier than, throughout Hurricane Michael, a class 5 hurricane that hit the Florida panhandle in 2018, and Mr Gregg mentioned he’s decided to be taught from that lesson.

“Hopefully, and nothing is for sure, the farm is sitting good and secure on the underside,” he mentioned. “However something might occur.”

To climate the storm, Mr Gregg plans to hunker down in his hometown of Tallahassee with a good friend who has a shelter.

The town can be within the hurricane’s projected path, and it has not skilled a storm of this magnitude in current reminiscence.

“Proper now it’s just about a ghost city. Every little thing’s closed. Every little thing’s boarded up.” he mentioned.

Denise O’Connor Badalamenti has seen numerous hurricanes in her many years residing in Florida, however Helene has her extra on edge than ever earlier than.

“I believe that is going to be the one,” the 62-year-old instructed BBC Information from her Bradenton dwelling, which sits only a few streets from the water, because the storm moved nearer to creating landfall.

“I really feel like we’re all the time within the cone of presumably being focused however then get sparred on the final minute however I do not suppose we will fortunate once more.”

Her mom’s dwelling has flooded six occasions through the years and this morning water was already creeping up their driveway. Her household has taped up all of the doorways shut, hoping to cease any flooding.

“This one is simply huge. It is scary,” Ms O’Connor Badalamenti mentioned.

Following the steerage of emergency officers, she mentioned has stockpiled provides and has an assortment of meals prepared in the event that they lose electrical energy.

“We’re prepared for the worst.”

Michael Bobbit, a clam farmer on the island of Cedar Key on Florida’s Huge Bend, mentioned that some folks in his neighborhood have determined to remain behind regardless of the warnings.

“The final a number of hours have actually simply been a frantic effort to beg folks to depart,” Mr Bobbit, 48, instructed the BBC on Thursday, earlier than the storm made landfall.

“Right here in Florida, we kind of consider that we’ll simply experience it out, it’s no huge deal. However this isn’t a type of storms.”

He added that locals have been attempting, “to sandbag as many buildings as we will”, in addition to board up home windows and get the island’s clam farms secured.

“The temper is sombre,” Mr Bobbit mentioned.

“Lots of people after they’re leaving the island are hugging one another and crying, saying ‘I hope we’ve a house to return to.'”

Mickey Moore, 54, has lived in his dwelling in Tallahassee for about 15 years and the worst he is seen coming from a hurricane was his energy going out.

This one, he mentioned, has him involved.

His house is about 20 miles (32km) from the Gulf of Mexico – and proper within the storm’s path.

“A class 4 – it is simply so huge,” he mentioned, taking a break from a recreation of Monopoly along with his two sons and his spouse.

“We have been lucky in previous storms,” he provides. “We do not take it without any consideration.”