Fast-moving Hurricane Helene rips through the town of Perry

AccuWeather

Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack reported from the eye of Hurricane Helene after it swept through Perry, Florida, with intense winds and drenching rain, causing widespread power flashes.

Transcript

00:00I am here in Perry, Florida, where we are right now sitting in the dead center of the eye of Major Hurricane Helene.

00:08It was a nasty, intense eyewall that has knocked out power for at least part of the town now.

00:15We were down the road in a different parking lot watching major power flashes as the power grid here in Perry, Florida,

00:22was absolutely hammered by the hurricane-force winds as it came ashore here in the last hour to hour and a half.

00:29Now, in a calmish eye with interchanging between calmness and occasional gust, very warm here in the eye, hazy,

00:38much different than the front part of the storm.

00:41But we do have that back side of the storm that will be making its way here very shortly.

00:45Now, this is one of the fastest eyes going through an eyewall and transitioning to an eye of a hurricane I've ever been in

00:52due to the speed of this major hurricane coming ashore here in the Big Bend region of Florida.

00:57That back side will rip through here again, probably not as strong as that front side,

01:01but it will be able to blow around stuff that has been broken free.

01:05But I am impressed with what's happened here in Perry.

01:10It's actually, I expected much more damage here, but I can only assume, you know, for example,

01:16I've got this big live oak tree back behind me.

01:19As you can maybe see, this live oak tree has very few branches left on it,

01:24very little bit of canopy, tree canopy on it.

01:27And that's because of major hurricane Adalia coming through last year, this exact same spot I was here.

01:33I assume it has taken down anything that, Adalia took down anything that was weakened,

01:39any of the infrastructure that was weak has been built back stronger.

01:43And Perry, Florida actually looks like it is in pretty good shape for taking a major hurricane

01:49right on the chin here in the Big Bend nature coast of Florida.

01:53Reporting for AccuWeather, I'm Aaron Jayjack in Perry, Florida.

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