'We are taking this storm very seriously:' Tallahassee mayor urges preparedness for Helene

AccuWeather

Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey joined AccuWeather for a live interview on Sept. 25 to discuss how his city is bracing for Hurricane Helene.

Transcript

00:00Tallahassee Mayor John Daly joins us right now again for the latest now

00:04thank you so much for taking the time once again mayor and our the first

00:08question I have for you is that we've seen folks filling sandbags and getting

00:11ready how are those Tallahassee residents responding to the danger of a

00:15day ahead of landfall? I really appreciate the residents of

00:20Tallahassee and Leon County I think they're responding well we are taking

00:24this storm very seriously if Tallahassee does get hit head on by

00:29category 3 it will be the strongest storm in the written history of our

00:32community so everyone is busy right now taking care of business taking care of

00:37their family their neighbors their neighborhoods and making sure that we

00:40are prepared for whatever mother nature may bring. Okay now as far as the

00:44evacuation plans how are those progressings and what do you

00:47specifically want your residents to do now while they are preparing to either

00:51stay or go? Well we've encouraged those that want to leave and have the ability

00:58to leave to please leave we also have our shelters that are open to take care

01:01of residents that want to stay but don't feel comfortable in their home regardless

01:05we are asking everyone that by nightfall tonight it is time to hunker down if you

01:10are going to be staying in the in the area whether you're at home or whether

01:13you're in a shelter take care of business now so that by time nightfall

01:17comes you are prepared for the storm. Okay now as far as your emergency crews

01:21what is their highest priorities here as we head into Helene making landfall? Well

01:27health safety and welfare will always be the number one priority and for the past

01:31week we've been preparing for this storm and I'm very proud of the men and women

01:34on the front lines of not only the electric utility but every aspect of

01:38city government as we speak right now we are placing our assets all over the

01:42community so that we'll be ready to respond after the storm this evening and

01:46tomorrow morning we'll be placing personnel all over the community and

01:50they'll be safe during the storm but ready to respond as soon as we do the

01:54professional assessment nine states in the United States as far away as out

02:00west in Ohio and in Oklahoma and Arkansas they are sending utility crews

02:06to Tallahassee as we speak and they'll be arriving any minute and throughout

02:09the afternoon and evening we will triple our workforce before the storm we also

02:14expect more mutual aid after the storm from other areas in the state of Florida

02:18that are not impacted which will allow us to expand our workforce fivefold so

02:22we are prepared we are ready we will do our professional assessment we will

02:27respond we just need to wait and see what the storm brings to our community

02:31okay now what information have you gained on this storm today that you want

02:36to share with Tallahassee residents one day from the storm yeah that's a great

02:42question you know we watch the storms and in the past we've seen storms at the

02:46last minute either jog a little bit to the east or jog a little bit to the west

02:50this storm as I understand is not moving it is heading straight towards

02:55Tallahassee and it is staying on the same path on top of that as we know it

03:00is projected to be a category 3 hurricane at landfall which is extremely

03:06serious and a very big storm that need we need to pay close attention to and

03:10make sure that we're prepared so things haven't changed all that much the storms

03:15on the same path it is projected to be a major hurricane we need to be prepared

03:20Tallahassee Mayor John Daly thank you so much for joining us this afternoon

03:24thank you Damian

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Transcript

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