Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey joined AccuWeather for a live interview on Sept. 25 to discuss how his city is bracing for Hurricane Helene.
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00:00Tallahassee Mayor John Daly joins us right now again for the latest now
00:04thank you so much for taking the time once again mayor and our the first
00:08question I have for you is that we've seen folks filling sandbags and getting
00:11ready how are those Tallahassee residents responding to the danger of a
00:15day ahead of landfall? I really appreciate the residents of
00:20Tallahassee and Leon County I think they're responding well we are taking
00:24this storm very seriously if Tallahassee does get hit head on by
00:29category 3 it will be the strongest storm in the written history of our
00:32community so everyone is busy right now taking care of business taking care of
00:37their family their neighbors their neighborhoods and making sure that we
00:40are prepared for whatever mother nature may bring. Okay now as far as the
00:44evacuation plans how are those progressings and what do you
00:47specifically want your residents to do now while they are preparing to either
00:51stay or go? Well we've encouraged those that want to leave and have the ability
00:58to leave to please leave we also have our shelters that are open to take care
01:01of residents that want to stay but don't feel comfortable in their home regardless
01:05we are asking everyone that by nightfall tonight it is time to hunker down if you
01:10are going to be staying in the in the area whether you're at home or whether
01:13you're in a shelter take care of business now so that by time nightfall
01:17comes you are prepared for the storm. Okay now as far as your emergency crews
01:21what is their highest priorities here as we head into Helene making landfall? Well
01:27health safety and welfare will always be the number one priority and for the past
01:31week we've been preparing for this storm and I'm very proud of the men and women
01:34on the front lines of not only the electric utility but every aspect of
01:38city government as we speak right now we are placing our assets all over the
01:42community so that we'll be ready to respond after the storm this evening and
01:46tomorrow morning we'll be placing personnel all over the community and
01:50they'll be safe during the storm but ready to respond as soon as we do the
01:54professional assessment nine states in the United States as far away as out
02:00west in Ohio and in Oklahoma and Arkansas they are sending utility crews
02:06to Tallahassee as we speak and they'll be arriving any minute and throughout
02:09the afternoon and evening we will triple our workforce before the storm we also
02:14expect more mutual aid after the storm from other areas in the state of Florida
02:18that are not impacted which will allow us to expand our workforce fivefold so
02:22we are prepared we are ready we will do our professional assessment we will
02:27respond we just need to wait and see what the storm brings to our community
02:31okay now what information have you gained on this storm today that you want
02:36to share with Tallahassee residents one day from the storm yeah that's a great
02:42question you know we watch the storms and in the past we've seen storms at the
02:46last minute either jog a little bit to the east or jog a little bit to the west
02:50this storm as I understand is not moving it is heading straight towards
02:55Tallahassee and it is staying on the same path on top of that as we know it
03:00is projected to be a category 3 hurricane at landfall which is extremely
03:06serious and a very big storm that need we need to pay close attention to and
03:10make sure that we're prepared so things haven't changed all that much the storms
03:15on the same path it is projected to be a major hurricane we need to be prepared
03:20Tallahassee Mayor John Daly thank you so much for joining us this afternoon
03:24thank you Damian