Officials have ordered all tourists to leave as well as all RVs. Mandatory evacuations also are in place for residents in Highland View, Wind Mark, St. Joe Beach, Beacon Hill to the county line and for the City of Port St. Joe for everyone from St. Joseph Bay to North Garrison Avenue and everyone from the bay to Garrison Avenue.

Evacuations are underway and time is running for Floridians to prepare for Helene, which threatens to hit as the strongest storm to make landfall in the United States in over a year.

Hurricane Helene made landfall late Thursday along the sparsely populated Big Bend section of Florida’s Gulf Coast as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm. It could bring devastation to an area that has already been battered by two previous hurricanes, even as the state’s capital city may escape the worst.