2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season Running Thread

Marty Merzer:

Repeating three uncomfortable facts for our fellow residents of Tallahassee and the entire region:

1. We are staring down the gun barrel on this one. Hurricane Helene will be powerful and mammoth, and it’s coming squarely at us. I have seen this picture too many times in too many places over too many decades, but rarely in a place as vulnerable as our own tree-intensive North Florida. This is reality: Unless something unexpectedly changes and even if the core wobbles a bit left or right, thousands of trees and countless power lines likely will fall, virtually everyone likely will lose utility power for days if not weeks, roads likely will be blocked for days if not weeks.

2. No government agency on Earth can come to the rescue of everyone at the same time. Someone will be first to have their power restored, their roads cleared, their roof replaced; someone will be last. It’s just the way it works. You’ll need to be patient while patience is in short, sweaty supply.

3. Therefore, it is our responsibility to prepare ourselves and our families for this incoming major natural disaster and for the lengthy, uncomfortable aftermath and recovery. As Rob Nucatola of WCTV keeps saying, we have a few more hours today to get ready before Helene’s outer bands reach us. Use these hours wisely. If you’re going to leave, leave now. If you’re going to stay, get it together now. We’ll get through this, but it’s going to be painful.

 

Marty Merzer:

About 24 hours left before impact. Everything getting worse:
- Latest Hurricane Helene advisory at 5 p.m. now calling for landfall of a major Category Four hurricane with sustained wind of 130 mph.
- "It should be noted that additional strengthening is possible beyond 24 hours before Helene makes landfall Thursday evening," National Hurricane Center specialist Jack Beven said.
- Landfall still predicted just south of Tallahassee, give or take, with a forward speed so unusually swift (23 mph) that Helene will maintain catastrophic intensity deeply inland.
- Deadly storm surge of up to 20 feet predicted along much of Florida's Gulf Coast.
- Mandatory evacuations ordered for coastal counties and for residents of mobile and manufactured homes in Leon County (Tallahassee) and other counties
- Roads west and south are jammed with evacuees. Roads toward us are crowded with incoming utility trucks from mutual-aid utilities around the Southeast.
- We're worried. Deeply worried. I have taken photos and videos of our house, inside and outside.
- Will try to post similar summaries as developments...develop.

 

Maybe. I'm really more fascinated to read a behind-the-scenes account of how they pegged this thing before it even formed.

 

Totally agree. I mean, it's playing out pretty much exactly as predicted.