AccuWeather's Tony Laubach reported live from Tallahassee on the evening of Sept. 25 as heavy rain began falling and time began running out for preparations for Hurricane Helene.
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00:00AccuWeather storm chaser and meteorologist Tony Laubach. He is live in Tallahassee, Florida right now
00:05with more on how people and communities have been preparing for the storm.
00:08Tony, are people taking this storm seriously?
00:14People are taking the storm very seriously. In fact, we are as well. Notice where I'm at.
00:19I'm live in my car. Why? Because lightning is a serious issue and it is one I don't like to
00:24mess with when I've got metal tripods sticking up off the ground here. We've actually got a
00:28little squall that's coming through right now, dumping some very heavy rain here in Tallahassee,
00:32and we are seeing some lightning with this as well. Actually, I have seen some concerns for
00:39the potential for some after dark water spouts moving onshore down in St. George Island, an area
00:45we were at just several hours ago. We're seeing these squalls, these outer bands. I don't know
00:50how associated they are with Helene, but that is something where you're going to be dealing with
00:54through the night even before we start talking about landfall. But we are dealing with that
01:00throughout the day today, and folks are taking the storm very, very seriously. We've been watching
01:05folks taking those last-second precautions. Mandatory evacuation started this morning
01:09at eight o'clock for many of the coastal communities in Florida. Folks were out this
01:14morning into the early afternoon doing their last-minute prep work. That included getting
01:18sandbags placed to prevent some of the flood waters from getting in, boarding up windows and
01:22doors, and leaving. That has been a common theme for a lot of people. We've been talking to folks
01:29in coastal communities. The very few that we saw this afternoon, as many of these were very
01:35reminiscent of ghost towns, and talking to a lot of those locals, them specifying their concerns
01:41with this storm. Boarding up and preparing for probably one of the worst storms we've ever seen.
01:48I think it's going to be real bad. The tide surge is bad. We have no protection. We're looking for
01:53the worst storm we've ever seen in East Florida. We've had hurricanes, but I don't believe we have,
02:00we've never had one of this size. Prepare, protect your family and friends, and get out of town.
02:11And hopefully you've done that already, the getting out of town part of it, because
02:15you might be running into some issues. Even tonight, even our drive up here to Tallahassee
02:19became quite white knuckle in some cases. These downpours are nothing to mess with,
02:22especially after dark. It's hard to see where you might run into some flooding. Fortunately,
02:26we didn't run into any standing water. A lot of this rain is pretty new and fresh,
02:30but we are going to start adding that on. You kind of see over my shoulder some of the folks
02:34in the parking lot here with their umbrellas. And again, we've got the lightning with that.
02:37So these tropical storms, tropical rain bands with the storms rolling in are going to be
02:43having for us tonight. And of course, as we start getting closer to landfall,
02:46the conditions are just going to deteriorate quicker than you can imagine. So hopefully,
02:50if you were watching us tonight, you were watching us from a safe spot. If you were choosing to ride
02:55it out, good luck. You know, I hope you took everything seriously. And Jeff, that seems to
03:00be the common theme. Most folks taking this very, very seriously. That's certainly good to hear,
03:05Tony. We are as well, obviously, I'm glad that you're a seasoned veteran doing this. And again,
03:10you're making some wise choices in where you're going to be with this as well.