Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Floridians make last-minute preparations before Helene's landfall
AccuWeather
Follow
9/26/2024
AccuWeather's Tony Laubach reported live from Crawfordville, Florida, on the evening of Sept. 25, as people finished boarding homes and rain began falling about 24 hours before landfall.
Category
🗞
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
So, our team coverage continues here. AccuWeather storm chaser meteorologist Tony Laubach is
00:05
live in Crawfordville, Florida with more on how people and communities are preparing for
00:10
this storm. Tony, are people taking this one seriously?
00:17
Straight answer, Jeff. Yes, we are definitely seeing that. In fact, I would almost go out
00:22
on a limb to say probably more serious than I would have given credit for. So, good for
00:25
folks here in the Florida Panhandle. It's easy sometimes to get a little complacent
00:30
when we talk about these systems and we get that a lot with storms. This one is striking
00:34
a chord with folks though. Right now, we were talking, Jeff, if you remember 24 hours ago
00:38
I was standing on a beach in bright sunshine. You would have had no idea anything was happening.
00:43
Now, literally in the course of the live hit here, we are seeing some rain come down here.
00:47
I would almost call this maybe like a baby squall. Not really seeing a whole lot of heavy
00:52
rain but just enough to where it's an inconvenience to the live shot because we don't have the
00:56
rain gear out because it wasn't raining when we started this out. A little bit of a breeze
01:00
but definitely a step or two down from where we were about this time yesterday. Now, of
01:05
course, this time tomorrow, we're going to be like off the cliff in terms of how deteriorated
01:11
the conditions are going to get. In fact, deteriorating is probably taking a little
01:14
lightning. I think we're going to be talking about maybe near catastrophic conditions for
01:18
a lot of these areas as we get into the evening tomorrow. But today has been all about prep
01:23
work and we've been seeing folks, those that were left this morning and this afternoon,
01:28
they were taking care of the last second boarding up. They were taking care of the last second
01:32
sandbags. We ran into just a couple of residents in what was pretty much ghost towns there
01:37
along St. George Island, Apalachicola. Not many folks left. There were more emergency
01:41
crews, media, and storm chasers than there were any residents by this point. But a lot
01:46
of them taking those last second preparations. We ran into one particular gentleman who owns
01:51
a company whose job is basically to come out and board up the houses of the folks out there
01:57
that have left ahead of Helene.
01:59
Basically, I'm just securing their home, making sure their windows and stuff is boarded up
02:06
as I can. I've went to several clients that didn't even ask me to secure their homes and
02:11
went and put shutters up for repeat customers. I don't know. I'm having a feeling we're really
02:16
going to get a bad storm.
02:22
And you heard him there. He's talking about it again. A lot of these folks have been here
02:25
for years and years of years, have dealt with the Ians and the Michaels, and that has been
02:29
names we've heard come up time and time again in terms of talking to a lot of these people.
02:34
They're taking this storm very, very seriously. We're actually in the parking lot of one of
02:38
the grocery stores here in Crawfordville. There are eight cars in the parking lot right
02:43
now, just not many folks out. Everybody's already taken all the precautions, hopefully
02:47
done everything they needed to do. We know the mandatory evacuations for a lot of these
02:51
areas took into effect early this morning, so people taking it seriously. And we are
02:56
now getting into the time of this system where you're going to wake up tomorrow and it is
03:01
going to be ride it out or hopefully just not be here to deal with it in the first place.
03:04
That's well said there, Tony. And we're going to be checking back with you later this evening
03:08
as well and plenty of times tomorrow as well.
Recommended
3:14
|
Up next
'Get out of town:' Floridians urge caution ahead of Helene
AccuWeather
9/26/2024
2:47
Coastal Florida turns into a ghost town ahead of Hurricane Helene
AccuWeather
9/26/2024
3:13
Powerful winds and rain arrive in Apalachicola ahead of Helene
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
2:58
Cleanup begins for those who stayed behind in Helene-stricken Florida towns
AccuWeather
9/28/2024
3:05
Trees come down in Tallahassee as Helene tears through Florida
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
2:08
Helene speeds toward the Florida coast
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
2:56
Helene's impacts begin arriving in Apalachicola
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
2:38
Storm surge sweeps ashore, flooding the Tampa area as Helene approaches
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
2:57
Conditions deteriorate in Steinhatchee in the hours before Helene's landfall
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
3:32
Hurricane Helene leaves behind unbelievable damage in Keaton Beach
AccuWeather
9/28/2024
2:55
Tranquil beach day in the Florida Panhandle ahead of Helene
AccuWeather
9/24/2024
1:54
Floodwaters overtake Gulfport ahead of Hurricane Helene
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
3:32
Floridians brace for Hurricane Milton's landfall
AccuWeather
10/9/2024
5:08
'Eerily quiet' in Tallahassee as people hunker down before Helene's landfall
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
3:33
Conditions deteriorate as Hurricane Helene closes in on Florida
AccuWeather
9/26/2024
2:39
Nursing homes evacuated as Hurricane Helene bears down on the Florida Panhandle
AccuWeather
9/26/2024
2:43
Powerful wind gusts pummel Tallahassee as Helene speeds through Florida
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
0:55
Hurricane Helene officially makes landfall as the strongest hurricane to ever hit Florida's Big ...
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
2:42
Clearwater businesses boarding up ahead of Hurricane Idalia
AccuWeather
8/29/2023
2:56
Conditions rapidly deteriorate in Tallahassee as Helene nears landfall
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
3:38
Forecasters concerned about widespread, catastrophic damage from Hurricane Helene
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
3:22
Intense wind gusts sweep into Tallahassee
AccuWeather
9/27/2024
3:28
Helene targets Florida as the storm continues to strengthen
AccuWeather
9/25/2024
4:39
Hurricane Helene's impacts stretch into Georgia and beyond
AccuWeather
9/28/2024
2:38
Floridians take care of last-minute preparations ahead of Helene
AccuWeather
9/24/2024