Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 61 counties in Florida ahead of Helene, which is expected to make landfall in the Sunshine State on Sept. 26 as a major hurricane.
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00:00Yesterday, I signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency for 41 counties,
00:05which allows for state officials to make resources available to communities
00:09ahead of any potential storm impacts and to work to expeditiously prepare for the approaching storm.
00:15This morning, given the data that's coming in about the tracks of the storm,
00:20we've increased the number of counties to 61.
00:23Basically, every county in Florida outside southeast Florida,
00:27the coastal southeastern Florida counties are now included,
00:31and part of that is we expect effects could reach significantly inland.
00:36We have requested a pre-fall emergency declaration from FEMA.
00:40We expect that to be approved very quickly.
00:43Here at the Emergency Operations Center, we are, of course, on full activation.
00:48The Big Bend and Panhandle should be especially prepared for a direct impact.
00:53We just got some model runs this morning that take it as far west as pretty close to Panama City,
01:00and I think the eastern routes are probably more in the Big Bend region,
01:05and that's just the direct impact.
01:07So just know that this thing's there.
01:10Know that this could have broad impacts, and we're anticipating impacts,
01:14I mean, 100, 200 miles outside of the eye of the storm you could see with winds and you can see with surge.
01:22So if you're in the Tampa Bay area, you anticipate that you're going to see impacts.
01:28We could also see impacts in southwest Florida with some of the surge, just depending on what the track is,
01:35and then, of course, the northern part of the state will end up getting a direct impact at some portion of there.
01:42But there's still a lot of uncertainty here, so I think people just should know that, hey, this is out there.
01:48We are going to see significant impacts no matter what happens.