Preparations underway in Florida; Helene to hit state as major hurricane

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bill Wadell is in Panama City Beach, Florida, where the area is expected to be significantly impacted by Helene, which is expected to make landfall in the state as a major hurricane.

Transcript

00:00Bill, gorgeous this morning at the beach now, but people need to be prepared for big impacts.

00:06Absolutely. Ariella Burney, good morning to you. It is a gorgeous morning here at the beach. People

00:11out enjoying the sun, the calm waters, the extremely warm waters this morning. This is

00:16one of those reasons for concern when the weather is just so nice. Some people let their guard down

00:22thinking the weather is going to be bad sooner and that's just not the case with a storm like this.

00:26The good news guys, the people that I've been talking with out here on the beach and right

00:30along the street this morning, a lot more people are aware of this storm. A lot more people are

00:34talking about it compared to what we saw yesterday and some of the tourists here tell us that they

00:38are cutting their vacations short and heading home early. Now, AccuWeather was the first

00:44source to forecast this track and intensity with hurricane impacts. We put this forecast out first

00:51to warn people of the impacts of this storm because with this homegrown development threat

00:56so close to the United States and still at this point not having a named storm, people need to get

01:01ready. That's why our forecast was out first to warn people that it is time to prepare and we

01:06could tell you the scars from Hurricane Michael nearly six years ago, it's still clear all over

01:11the place including over at Tyndall Air Force Base. More than 400 buildings on the base were

01:15destroyed by Michael. Five billion dollars in construction projects to build back better and

01:21stronger for the next storm. They're underway right now. Now, that work is expected to be

01:25finished by next summer but the storm could delay construction and could potentially push back those

01:31plans. People visiting or living full-time in RVs and campers are being warned to take this storm

01:37threat seriously along the Gulf Coast. RVs and campers can be incredibly dangerous in tropical

01:43storms and hurricanes. The wind can slam against both the side and it can also blow underneath

01:48those campers and we've seen RVs easily flip in hurricane force winds and be torn apart. We saw

01:55some families packing up and rolling out of this campsite in Mexico Beach yesterday. A good idea,

02:00you could see that site is surrounded by water on both sides. Visitors here tell us they can

02:05confirm the buoy reports that water temperatures are just incredibly warm. Oh my lord, let me tell

02:13you, we went out yesterday in the water and was amazed at how the temperature was. I don't know

02:19what it was but it's some of the warmest Gulf water I have ever felt. Those warm waters at the

02:27surface and deep down hundreds of feet below the surface far out in the Gulf, that can act like

02:33rocket fuel helping these storms explode in intensity and we just checked the buoy readings

02:38here in the Panama City Beach, Florida area. Not far from here, some of those readings, Bernie and

02:42Ariella, 83 close to 85 degrees. So close to the coast, that is well above the historical average. So

02:50that's why there is such a concern for the threat of rapid intensification, not just for this storm

02:55but over the next few weeks if we see any more tropical threats. Speaking with Alex Da Silva,

02:59those warm warm waters are so far down that the storm really isn't able to churn up colder water

03:05so we're not seeing temperatures really cool down in the wake of these storms and again some

03:10locals we are taking this storm a bit more seriously. Some visitors tell us they are going

03:14to be packing up and cutting their trip short but when it comes to preparations

03:18we haven't seen much of that yet but that is expected to change later today.

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