Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack reported from the eye of Hurricane Helene after it swept through Perry, Florida, with intense winds and drenching rain, causing widespread power flashes.
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00:00I am here in Perry, Florida, where we are right now sitting in the dead center of the eye of Major Hurricane Helene.
00:08It was a nasty, intense eyewall that has knocked out power for at least part of the town now.
00:15We were down the road in a different parking lot watching major power flashes as the power grid here in Perry, Florida,
00:22was absolutely hammered by the hurricane-force winds as it came ashore here in the last hour to hour and a half.
00:29Now, in a calmish eye with interchanging between calmness and occasional gust, very warm here in the eye, hazy,
00:38much different than the front part of the storm.
00:41But we do have that back side of the storm that will be making its way here very shortly.
00:45Now, this is one of the fastest eyes going through an eyewall and transitioning to an eye of a hurricane I've ever been in
00:52due to the speed of this major hurricane coming ashore here in the Big Bend region of Florida.
00:57That back side will rip through here again, probably not as strong as that front side,
01:01but it will be able to blow around stuff that has been broken free.
01:05But I am impressed with what's happened here in Perry.
01:10It's actually, I expected much more damage here, but I can only assume, you know, for example,
01:16I've got this big live oak tree back behind me.
01:19As you can maybe see, this live oak tree has very few branches left on it,
01:24very little bit of canopy, tree canopy on it.
01:27And that's because of major hurricane Adalia coming through last year, this exact same spot I was here.
01:33I assume it has taken down anything that, Adalia took down anything that was weakened,
01:39any of the infrastructure that was weak has been built back stronger.
01:43And Perry, Florida actually looks like it is in pretty good shape for taking a major hurricane
01:49right on the chin here in the Big Bend nature coast of Florida.
01:53Reporting for AccuWeather, I'm Aaron Jayjack in Perry, Florida.