AccuWeather's Bill Wadell reports significant flooding and drenching rainfall already present in Apalachicola, Florida, as Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall later tonight.
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00:00We're right along one of the coastal streets, right next to the bay, just coming out of high
00:05tide. You can see these streets here behind me are already flooded. We are still hours
00:10away from Hurricane Helene making landfall and we're already seeing some big impacts here
00:14in Apalachicola. The water at high tide just being pushed right in by the storm,
00:19right onto some of these coastal roads. And yeah, officials are saying these are life and
00:24death decisions that people need to make over the next hour or two. There's still a bit of time to
00:28evacuate, but again you can see conditions are going downhill really fast and at a certain point
00:33bridges are going to be shut down. Emergency responders can't respond and that time for a
00:39last minute evacuation may now be over for some people along the Gulf Coast. Unlike the South
00:46Florida area, Central Florida area, that's built up pretty well. Very strong infrastructure for
00:50these storms. That's not always the case in some of these smaller communities along the big bend
00:55of Florida and a lot of tall trees here along the nature coast as well. That's a big concern that
01:00we're going to have trees coming down, blocking roads and streets. Also in past storms we've seen
01:05in this area, those trees crashing onto cars and slicing right into homes. Power lines coming down
01:11as well. One local that we spoke with had this message for his neighbors and other people in
01:17Florida who are choosing to evacuate. God be with them because I've been around this enough you take
01:26us take this weather serious. It might cost you a few bucks to leave and come back, but it's better
01:31to come back and try to rebuild than not to be able to come back. Michael Dasher and his shrimping
01:39buddies moved their boats seven miles upriver to Safe Harbor to get them to safety. His family
01:45evacuated to Biloxi, Mississippi. Now sandbags are only going to help so much with a storm like this.
01:5110 to 15 feet of storm surge is possible, even more in some spots of the Apalachicola Bay area.
01:5715 to 20 feet of life-threatening storm surge is possible east of here. U.S. Senator Rick Scott says
02:04if you have family or friends refusing to leave high-risk areas right along the coast of the big
02:09bend or those barrier islands, call them and remind them of what happened at Fort Myers Beach.
02:15During Hurricane Ian and what happened at Mexico Beach during Hurricane Michael.
02:21And think how many people died in Mexico Beach because they didn't evacuate. They had the time,
02:25but just like the commissioner said, you cannot wait to evacuate because what happens is
02:30these roads get clogged up, the bridges you get flooding, there's debris all over the place,
02:36you can't drive in the wind. Okay, you've got to evacuate early, you can't evacuate late.
02:40And businesses are boarded up here in town. In just a few hours there will be no place to go
02:50once the bridges close down and as you can see conditions once again going down here fast as
02:54we're dealing with heavy rain, dealing with street flooding in some of these low-lying areas right
02:59next to the bay in Apalachicola. This is exactly the concern the Accuweather expert meteorologists
03:05have had for days. This is why Accuweather issued the first track and intensity forecast for this
03:11storm before any other source. Our experts have been trying to warn people this is a rapidly
03:17intensifying storm. Conditions are going to go downhill fast. These are tough conditions for
03:22people to try and make that last minute evacuation in and it's only going to get worse. Again guys,
03:27a big concern. Trees coming down, power lines coming down and we're just getting started.