Even Many Hurricane Veterans Were Leaving Florida’s Big Bend Ahead of Helene
Even Many Hurricane Veterans Were Leaving Florida’s Big Bend Ahead of Helene
In his 58 years, John Posey, a lifelong resident of the Forgotten Coast of Florida on the remote eastern edge of the Panhandle, had never evacuated for a hurricane — neither for Dennis in 2005, nor for Michael in 2018.
But on Wednesday, as he stood outside his namesake seafood restaurant in Panacea, Fla., a community of about 800 near the marshy shores of Ochlockonee Bay, Mr. Posey admitted that this hurricane felt different. Helene was closing in and, for the first time, he wasn’t sure he could stay.
Across Florida’s Big Bend region, which has already endured two other hurricanes in 13 months, many more people appeared to be heeding evacuation orders this time, leaving the small towns that dot the coast eerily empty on Thursday.
That was especially true in three rural counties that had taken the rare step of ordering mandatory countywide evacuations. Homes and businesses in Wakulla County, where Panacea is, were boarded up. In Crawfordville, even the local Waffle House was covered with plywood.
The Florida National Guard arrived on Thursday morning in Cedar Key, a tiny city that sits on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, to alert the remaining residents about the approaching danger.
“In the last storm here, people would walk by us with beer and we’d say, ‘There’s a hurricane here,’” Capt. John Meacham said. “They’d say, ‘We’ll stick it out.’”
He noticed fewer such people on Thursday.
John MacDonald, the director of emergency management for Levy County, which includes Cedar Key, said he had hoped to see more residents in emergency shelters. “But I know some people seek shelter with family or somewhere else,” he added.
Capt. Jeff Yarbrough, a spokesman for the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office, said deputies had been thorough in going door to door beginning on Wednesday to urge people to get out, especially if they live south of U.S. 98, which runs parallel to the Gulf Coast.
“The conditions for our county are pretty severe, more so than we’ve had in recent memory,” he said. Perhaps 200 people whom deputies had contacted in the county of about 35,000 said they planned to stay, he estimated early on Thursday afternoon.
However, not everyone was planning to leave, Mr. Rayborn said, including himself. He said he would stay at his home, a short drive inland, before heading back to reopen as soon as possible so people could get supplies.
In asking people to evacuate, emergency managers repeatedly reminded residents that they did not need to go too far from home — likely just a few miles inland, away from the deadly storm surge, which is expected to reach up to 20 feet high in parts of northern Florida.
Cole Hall, a 25-year-old oyster farmer from Oyster Bay, decided to stay with family about 10 miles north of Panacea.
“We got oysters. We got beer. We got generators. We got pretty much everything we need,” he said. “We got gator on the grill right now.”
On Thursday, he was busy sinking the cages that house his growing oyster crop to the bottom of the bay in an effort to protect the seeds from possible storm surge.
His biggest fear is losing his farm, he said. “My next year’s product could potentially be lost, and I wouldn’t have anything for next year to sell.”
In Panacea, Mr. Posey, the restaurant owner, was assessing his situation as he looked out over the miserable, steady rain that fell most of the day.
“I’d be crabbing in this,” said Mr. Posey, who is also a commercial fisherman. He remembered past storms: “During Dennis, I was rescuing people with an aluminum boat.”
But he worried that strong winds could rip off roofs. And he’s older now, he said — a grandfather looking to stay safe.
Mr. Posey said he would wait for the water to get to the door of his restaurant.
Then, he might go.
Valerie Crowder, Jacey Fortin, Rachel Nostrant, Kate Selig and Isabelle Taft contributed reporting
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