Helene is barreling toward Florida.
Now.
All 67 of the state's counties are under a state
of emergency.
Joining me now, mayor of Gainesville, FL Harvey Ward mayor,
thanks so much for zooming in.
Let's talk about Alachua County now issuing the state of
emergency two days before Helene was expected to make landfall.
How concerned are you at this hour?
So of course, we, we always sign the state of
emergency with plenty of time left so that we can
prepare exists opportunities to make sure that everything is set
for the storm.
And we're taking it very, very seriously.
We have a tremendous staff here at the city of
Gainesville who go through training exercises all year long to
be prepared for this.
And we see these, you know, pretty regularly.
The hope is that, you know, that, that the bulk
of the storm misses us, but we're prepared either way.
I the, the thing that I most want our, our
neighbors here to to know and those who, who have
family here is that we are prepared and that our,
our staff, our emergency personnel have put everything together and
we are as prepared as we could possibly be.
Well, tell me what you're urging residents to do at
this time.
So at this point, you know, we, we still have
a few hours before the, the bulk of the storm
gets near us.
I urge people to start staying where you are, you
know, get home, if you can stay there, get the,
the, the, your final preparations made and be ready to,
to be home for, for the next, you know, the
next 18 hours or so.
OK, it's good advice.
And Gainesville maybe inland, but storm surge is also a
concern.
How's the city prepared to respond to the aftermath that,
you know, we're, we're sort of predicting here So we
won't have storm surge.
We, we do know that we're 50 miles or so
far from the coast.
But gosh, that folks in Cedar Key and then along
the coast are certainly and in our hearts and we're,
we're concerned about that.
But we absolutely are ready for the for the aftermath
of the storm.
I would urge everyone, when you venture back out after
the storm, please don't try to pick up any, any
down cables.
You don't know what they are.
You don't know if they're live.
Please stay away from those, stay out of the of
puddles that are are in places where they ought not
be.
You don't know how deep they are.
And, you know, check on your friends, check on on
all your people.
Make sure that that the folks you know and who
depend on you are safe.
And, you know, we all depend on each other and
the aftermath of a storm like this.
Absolutely, especially the elderly and the disabled.
That's great advice.
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward, Thank you so much, Mayor.
Thanks for having me.