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    • Tallahassee responds to approaching Hurricane Helene
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    Tallahassee responds to approaching Hurricane Helene

    Vaseline Posted on

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    Meteorologists warned that hurricane-force winds from Helene were just hours away from the unprecedented impacts Tallahassee would experience. Residents’ emotions ranged from fear for trees to worry about running out of ice to nonchalance about their neighbors’ concerns.

    As Mayor John Dailey warned residents that if the predicted course holds, Tallahassee would experience hurricane damage “the likes of which we have never seen before,” many rushed to stock up on water, bread and other necessities to survive as Helene wreaks havoc on life in the capital.

    At a Publix, Sigrid Schmidt pushed a shopping cart loaded with three one-gallon bottles of water. It was her third trip to the grocery store this week. She had already stocked up on food to get her through the weekend—if she had to.

    “I’ve been through a lot of hurricanes, but this one looks pretty bad. It’s coming right at us,” Schmidt said as she opened the back of her car and pulled out a cooler. “I need to get some ice.”

    Helene will be Schmidt’s seventh hurricane to hit Tallahassee. She declined to give her age but said she moved to the city from Massachusetts in the 1970s. A storm earlier this year uprooted an oak tree in her backyard in Killearn.

    “The trees scare me,” Schmidt said when recounting the incident.

    At a nearby gas station, Reverend Chad Clement confessed that sometimes he becomes “desensitized” to hurricane warnings.

    “I feel like sometimes in our region we just forget,” Clement said, referring to the way people seem to ignore warnings from meteorologists, officials and the news media when a major storm is approaching.

    In the past eight years, three hurricanes have hit Tallahassee, disrupting life as trees felled, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, blocking roads and halting transportation.

    In 2016, Hermine produced 35 tons of tree debris and caused power outages for weeks. A year later, Irma toppled hundreds of trees and knocked out 60 traffic lights, blocking dozens of roads. And in 2018, Hurricane Michael produced more than a million cubic meters of tree debris.

    Clement said he understands the nonchalant attitude of some as he fills the tank of his pickup truck. But after hitting a “giant oak tree” in his backyard, he’s “preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.” He had to fill two 10-gallon gas tanks to power a generator and chainsaw at home.

    Earlier this year, a massive live oak fell just a foot from the home he shares with his wife and their four children. “I think it’s a good thing he missed our house. There are a lot of big trees there. That’s the blessing and the curse of living in Tree City,” Clement said.

    Isabelle Santiago and Marshall Gallagher enjoyed breakfast outside at Jenny’s Lunchbox on Magnolia Drive on Wednesday morning.

    “I’m from Broward (County) and I’ve been through a couple hurricanes. I literally just bought some water and filled up my car. I’m feeling good,” Santiago said.

    Gallagher, a business student at Florida State University in North Carolina, nodded in agreement: “I’m on the same page. We’ve had two years of this bullshit hurricane stuff. Worst case scenario, we’ll have a power outage. I mean, I’ll chill. We’re in this together.”

    Across town at the Piggly Wiggly, Walter Godette said he’s taken every precaution he can think of. The 57-year-old Tallahassee resident received sandbags from the city on Tuesday, picked up extra batteries and charged his devices. He said he has enough food in the freezer to get his family through until power is restored, should it go out.

    “I’m going to get some ice cream. I don’t want any of the food to spoil,” Goodette said as he walked into the store.

    James Bel is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected] and can be found at X as @CallTallahassee.

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