AccuWeather's Bill Wadell reported live from Mexico Beach on Sept. 23, where many are still rebuilding years after Michael.
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00:00So families in the Florida Panhandle are all too familiar with the powerful hurricane landfalls.
00:05AccuWeather's Bill Waddell joins us live this afternoon from Mexico Beach. And Bill,
00:09how are people handling the news? They have only three more days to prepare for this storm's impacts.
00:17Hey Jeff, good afternoon to you. This is one of the sites that our meteorologists at AccuWeather
00:22don't want to see. We are not seeing a mad rush to prepare for a major hurricane landfall. In fact,
00:27some of the people that we just spoke with walking here to the waterfront told us they
00:31weren't aware how serious this storm threat was. You can see here behind us there are still some
00:35folks out enjoying the water, enjoying the sun. It's nice and calm with a calm breeze,
00:40but unfortunately we know that major impacts are going to be arriving here within 24,
00:4448 hours. Of course, the worst of it in 72 hours. So there's not much time to prepare.
00:49And even here behind me, this is an active construction site. Contractors are working
00:53on an oceanfront home, one of many here in the Mexico Beach area, still being repaired or rebuilt
00:59from previous storm damage. And that is a big concern. With all of those construction materials,
01:04if they're not secured down, they could go flying in hurricane-force winds. So that's
01:08just one of the safety concerns when you're talking about a potential major hurricane
01:12landfall with impacts in a place like Mexico Beach. Now, when you look at the video just
01:17about an hour west of here, we were in Panama City Beach earlier. Beautiful conditions there
01:22as well. A lot of people out enjoying the sun and enjoying the very warm waters in the
01:27Gulf of Mexico. There are no warning signs that we've seen up yet on digital message boards,
01:32and we really haven't seen people out getting supplies or boarding up just yet. But we do
01:37expect storm preparations to really ramp up this evening and especially tomorrow. For some locals,
01:43a forecast of a major hurricane landfall brings back terrible memories of Category 5 Hurricane
01:48Michael, which hammered the Panama City Beach area and of course left Mexico Beach here in
01:54ruins. One local told us they're still trying to build back stronger, but many places here don't
01:59look the same after Michael, and some storm survivors have never returned. Visitors in
02:05town for a late summer beach trip are leaving early to beat the storm impacts. One woman told
02:10us that she is worried for all of the people here along this part of the Florida Gulf Coast.
02:15It's beautiful, white sandy beaches. It's just lovely. It's sad. Prayers to all. I hope that it
02:25just doesn't hit anywhere.
02:29Yeah, that is the hope for a lot of people, but unfortunately we are looking at very serious
02:34storm impacts here. Yellow flags and calm surfer out on the water, but again within 48 hours or so,
02:40we expect some dangerous surf and rip currents to arrive before even worse storm impacts arrive
02:46with this hurricane threat. Now right across the street from where we are, there is a campground
02:50with a lot of RVs and campers. We know that a lot of families in this area after a major storm like
02:55Michael and for other reasons, they live in those campers full-time, Jeff. So those folks are going
03:01to be warned definitely to prepare for this storm. Again, when you're just within a few hundred yards
03:07of the water, you've got the ocean, one street, a few feet difference of elevation and campgrounds
03:13with families there. This is a big concern, Jeff. Those people are going to be warned. It's a good
03:18idea to consider packing up, getting out of the way, getting to safety, especially for people
03:22who have been through major storms. They've lost their homes and they're now living in campers.
03:27It's going to be best for them to pack up and get out. But again, at this point here in Mexico
03:30Beach, we are not seeing many storm preparations yet at this hour. All right, Bill, we appreciate
03:36that report here. And we've been watching this cluster of thunderstorms over the past, well,
03:40we've been talking about this as a forecast concern for the past 10 days or so. But here we are
03:46still soon to see this congeal into a tropical storm. But it is a tropical rainstorm at this
03:53point. We're beginning to see some more hints of circulation and so forth. Some deep convection
03:57here east northeast of Honduras. And as we take a look at the water temperatures, we have very
04:01warm water in the advance of this storm, near record warm water for this time of the year.