While hoping for the best, many people along the Florida Panhandle were preparing for the worst on Sept. 24, bracing for impact from Helene.
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00:00AccuWeather storm chaser and meteorologist Tony Laubach is live right now in Shell Point Beach, Florida again with more on how people and communities are preparing for the storm. Tony?
00:12Yeah, I'm gonna change up your toss a little bit and say AccuWeather storm chaser is not in Michigan right now because he is chillin' on the beach, chillin' like a villain.
00:21And a few folks are doing that despite the threat that looms over the next couple of days, but really today is going to be the last day to get out here and enjoy what is very, very lovely beach weather.
00:33Not many folks out here, though. This is what is called the Forgotten Coast, some of the locals here have told me.
00:39So this is not typically a heavily populated area for visitors alike here, but certainly a beautiful day on the beach.
00:46And while some are enjoying the beach, others are doing some prep work here. We'll show you one of those prep works here.
00:52You see some folks that are actually working to move some of their outbuildings here.
00:56A lot of these residents are in the process of getting boats out of the water, moving boats further inland and taking care of items like this.
01:03You see in this group of folks here, they are prepping this particular building here to get hauled off on a trailer tomorrow.
01:10And that way they can get that on drier ground because, of course, with the surge possible up this way, that being as close to the water, they have certain concerns.
01:17But nobody taking any chances here with Helene.
01:23The sad thing is you hope that it veers east, but that's just going to hurt somebody else.
01:28If it veers east, we're not going to get the tidal surge that is expected, but the poor people that it veers over to, we're going to get it worse off.
01:36We're hoping that whatever happens, we can recover. We can only hope for the best.
01:41Hopefully in a week's time, we can be back up kind of where we were.
01:48And these folks are optimistic. You heard him talking about maybe in a week's time, a lot of these people have been through many, many storms.
01:54These particular folks I was talking to, talking about how this is kind of reminiscent of Michael when it came up and through this area.
02:00But obviously, we've seen several storms in this general vicinity.
02:03Just most recently, Debbie was one of the ones.
02:05Obviously, Ian, Idalia coming through this area.
02:08So we've had numerous storms that have impacted this region.
02:11So obviously, today, using as a prep day, mandatory evacuations here and along many areas of the coast do take an effect starting tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.
02:21So, folks, if you are rushing your preparations, get them done tonight because you're going to be on your way out the door and hopefully further inland and safe heading by tomorrow.
02:28All right, Tony. Well, I know you have a few very busy days ahead of you.
02:32We'll be looking out for your updates.
02:34Thanks again for your reporting here ahead of the storm at Shell Point Beach, Florida.