Residents in Central Florida filled sandbags and loaded shopping carts with batteries and canned goods Wednesday in preparation for gusty winds and heavy downpours across the region Thursday from Hurricane Helene.
Helene is expected to reach major hurricane strength — barely a Category 4 — in the Gulf of Mexico with 130 mph sustained winds by 8 p.m. Thursday, when it’s forecast to slam into the Panhandle just south of Tallahassee. Meteorologists say heavy winds extend unusually far from this system’s center, deepening the concern.
“This is a monster storm that looks to encompass almost the entire state of Florida as it moves up to the Panhandle and the Big Bend area,” said Alan Harris, Seminole’s manager for emergency services.
Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for 17 counties and voluntary evacuation orders in another eight. In general, the orders come in areas of Florida along the Gulf and apply to coastal zones, senior facilities and mobile homes.
In Central Florida — which is under a tropical storm warning until Friday — residents can expect sustained winds up to 35 mph with gusts to 50 mph, officials said, with heavy downpours throughout the region.
“The bad news is that we will definitely be impacted,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said. “We are prepared for the worst but we hope for the best. Our community is ready.”
The wind and rain are expected to pick up Thursday morning, “and as the day goes on the conditions will continue to deteriorate,” Demings said.
Rainfall is forecast to reach 6 inches by Sunday across the region, according to the National Weather Service. However, some areas could see slightly more depending on Helene’s feeder bands. That could create problems in many low-lying areas prone to flooding, emergency management officials said.
Strong winds could topple trees — many whose roots have weakened from recent summer rains — and clip electrical lines causing power outage, officials said.
“We’ve had a wet summer here in Central Florida,” Demings said. “The ground soils are already saturated, and as a result of that, it doesn’t take and will not take much water to see some type of impact from flooding within our community.”
Demings, however, added that Orange County doesn’t expect extraordinary flooding in the historically vulnerable Orlo Vista neighborhood after capacity was added to a retention pond and recent stormwater drainage improvements. The neighborhood experienced heavy flooding after hurricanes Irma in 2017 and Ian in 2022.
The Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia county school districts are closing campuses Thursday. The University of Central Florida, Seminole State College and Valencia College are also ceasing campus operations, although UCF said student housing remains open. Most governments, including in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties, will not be open Thursday to the public.
And an Orange County schools spokesman said whether campuses reopen Friday depends largely on if they have power.
More than 8,000 employees of Duke Energy have arrived in the state to help restore power after the outages, company spokeswoman Lisa Curran said.
Resident Shantell Pettway was trying to prepare Wednesday morning as she filled bags with sand at Westmonte Recreation Center in Altamonte Springs. She was among a steady stream of people who arrived with shovels ready to load trunks or pickup trucks.
Pettway’s yard and the street in front of her home normally flood after heavy rain, she said.
“The water has always come up near my home after a big storm,” she said as she climbed into her car. “And two years ago, there was some water inside my home [after Ian]. So it’s better to be prepared.”
In Osceola County, Marlyn Velazquez, 31, and her brother Meled, 24, arrived at Osceola Heritage Park early to secure 25 sandbags to protect their Kissimmee home, which also flooded during Hurricane Ian.
“We woke up to about ankle-deep water on the first floor,” Velazquez said. “It was very traumatic.”
She said the family lost everything then, but she and her two kids, her two kids, 16-year-old Adjan and 14-year-old Yael, learned hard lessons.
“The kids were so scared, so now every time we hear there’s a hurricane they pick up all their electronics and put them high up,” she said.
In Seminole’s Shadowbay community, residents kept a nervous eye to the skies Wednesday. In recent months, their roads and yards have flooded after a resident plugged a stormwater pipe in her yard with concrete. A judge recently ordered the homeowner, Diane Goglas, to fix it by Oct. 1.
Shadowbay roads have cleared because there’s been little recent rain. But resident said Wednesday they worry Helene may bring back flooding.
“We’re just praying,” said Catherine Bourne, whose elderly parents live in Shadowbay. “If we have more than 4 inches of rain, then we’ll have a problem.”
Mary Cangiolosi walked out of an Altamonte Springs Publix pushing a shopping cart with bottled water, snacks, canned goods and batteries. But most of the store shelves were still stocked with items.
“My power always goes out after a storm,” Cangiolosi said. “So it doesn’t hurt [to have the items].”