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.
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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.