Floridians reminded of the devastation of Hurricane Michael as they brace for a new storm

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bill Wadell reported live from Mexico Beach on Sept. 23, where many are still rebuilding years after Michael.

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00:00So families in the Florida Panhandle are all too familiar with the powerful hurricane landfalls.

00:05AccuWeather's Bill Waddell joins us live this afternoon from Mexico Beach. And Bill,

00:09how are people handling the news? They have only three more days to prepare for this storm's impacts.

00:17Hey Jeff, good afternoon to you. This is one of the sites that our meteorologists at AccuWeather

00:22don't want to see. We are not seeing a mad rush to prepare for a major hurricane landfall. In fact,

00:27some of the people that we just spoke with walking here to the waterfront told us they

00:31weren't aware how serious this storm threat was. You can see here behind us there are still some

00:35folks out enjoying the water, enjoying the sun. It's nice and calm with a calm breeze,

00:40but unfortunately we know that major impacts are going to be arriving here within 24,

00:4448 hours. Of course, the worst of it in 72 hours. So there's not much time to prepare.

00:49And even here behind me, this is an active construction site. Contractors are working

00:53on an oceanfront home, one of many here in the Mexico Beach area, still being repaired or rebuilt

00:59from previous storm damage. And that is a big concern. With all of those construction materials,

01:04if they're not secured down, they could go flying in hurricane-force winds. So that's

01:08just one of the safety concerns when you're talking about a potential major hurricane

01:12landfall with impacts in a place like Mexico Beach. Now, when you look at the video just

01:17about an hour west of here, we were in Panama City Beach earlier. Beautiful conditions there

01:22as well. A lot of people out enjoying the sun and enjoying the very warm waters in the

01:27Gulf of Mexico. There are no warning signs that we've seen up yet on digital message boards,

01:32and we really haven't seen people out getting supplies or boarding up just yet. But we do

01:37expect storm preparations to really ramp up this evening and especially tomorrow. For some locals,

01:43a forecast of a major hurricane landfall brings back terrible memories of Category 5 Hurricane

01:48Michael, which hammered the Panama City Beach area and of course left Mexico Beach here in

01:54ruins. One local told us they're still trying to build back stronger, but many places here don't

01:59look the same after Michael, and some storm survivors have never returned. Visitors in

02:05town for a late summer beach trip are leaving early to beat the storm impacts. One woman told

02:10us that she is worried for all of the people here along this part of the Florida Gulf Coast.

02:15It's beautiful, white sandy beaches. It's just lovely. It's sad. Prayers to all. I hope that it

02:25just doesn't hit anywhere.

02:29Yeah, that is the hope for a lot of people, but unfortunately we are looking at very serious

02:34storm impacts here. Yellow flags and calm surfer out on the water, but again within 48 hours or so,

02:40we expect some dangerous surf and rip currents to arrive before even worse storm impacts arrive

02:46with this hurricane threat. Now right across the street from where we are, there is a campground

02:50with a lot of RVs and campers. We know that a lot of families in this area after a major storm like

02:55Michael and for other reasons, they live in those campers full-time, Jeff. So those folks are going

03:01to be warned definitely to prepare for this storm. Again, when you're just within a few hundred yards

03:07of the water, you've got the ocean, one street, a few feet difference of elevation and campgrounds

03:13with families there. This is a big concern, Jeff. Those people are going to be warned. It's a good

03:18idea to consider packing up, getting out of the way, getting to safety, especially for people

03:22who have been through major storms. They've lost their homes and they're now living in campers.

03:27It's going to be best for them to pack up and get out. But again, at this point here in Mexico

03:30Beach, we are not seeing many storm preparations yet at this hour. All right, Bill, we appreciate

03:36that report here. And we've been watching this cluster of thunderstorms over the past, well,

03:40we've been talking about this as a forecast concern for the past 10 days or so. But here we are

03:46still soon to see this congeal into a tropical storm. But it is a tropical rainstorm at this

03:53point. We're beginning to see some more hints of circulation and so forth. Some deep convection

03:57here east northeast of Honduras. And as we take a look at the water temperatures, we have very

04:01warm water in the advance of this storm, near record warm water for this time of the year.

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