Winds exceeded 160 miles per hour. The water threatened hundreds of miles of Florida’s coast. And while on his boat instead of at home due to Hurricane Helen, Philip Tooke was able to type out a simple but passionate message from his cell phone.
“The power went out,” he wrote from St. Marks, 30 miles south of Tallahassee and 32 miles from where Hurricane Helen hit the mouth of the Aucilla River. But, he says, “I’m still floating.”
Tuke, 63, the owner of a local seafood market, and his brother are spending the hurricane on their fishing boat.
These two are among the Florida residents who went into the water to survive. They did so despite evacuation orders in advance of the arrival of a Category 4 hurricane and dire warnings of death for those who remained.
Tuke, a rock crab fisherman, told USA TODAY before landing that riding out the storm in a boat “wouldn’t be comfortable here.” “If you don’t get hit directly, you’ll be fine.”
Helen almost hits Brother Tooke to death. The couple said they also rode a boat through Category 1 Hurricane Debbie in early August. They say they are not ready to compare the experiences of the two storms because Helen is “not finished yet.”
Coast Guard officials strongly caution against remaining on ships during hurricanes. But there are more than 1 million recreational boats registered in Florida, according to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Coast Guard officials acknowledge that many owners continue to boat. There is.
“This is common. A lot of people live on sailboats and don’t have much else to go,” Petty Officer Eric Rodriguez told USA TODAY. “In many cases, you have to wait for the storm to subside before you put your property in a Category 4 storm.”
The brothers aren’t the only Floridians obsessed with water.
Ben Monahan and Valerie Crist, whose boat was crushed by Debbie, told local radio they planned to get Helen out on their yacht at the Gulfport Municipal Marina.
Monaghan told WMNF of Florida that his boat collided with another vessel during the hurricane and had to be rescued by the fire department.
Lt. Todd Olmer, public information officer for Sheriff Carmine Marceno at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, said Florida law enforcement agencies are especially prepared for water rescues, including rescue boats and specially constructed It is said to be equipped with a “swamp buggy”.
But Olmer warned that once the storm reaches a certain strength, rescue will not be possible.
“The marine environment is a dangerous environment where rising water, wind and currents can dictate your day,” Olmer said. “And when boating trouble occurs during a storm, Mother Nature always wins, preventing first responders from arriving in a timely manner.”
Olmer said the department typically had to wait for help until sustained winds fell below 40 mph. Helene’s wind speed was more than three times faster than when it made landfall.
Olmer, a veteran of the Florida Coast Guard, said the Gulf of Mexico is especially dangerous during storms compared to other bodies of water.
“The Gulf coast is different because the waves are high and close together,” Olmer said of the spacing between the waves. “It’s like a super chop.”
Rodriguez, of the Florida Coast Guard, said the Coast Guard is already preparing to wait until morning, when it will send an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and a C-27 fixed-wing aircraft to locate debris and rescue needs on the coast. He said he plans to search for any signs of people in the area.
Further along the shores of Tampa Bay, a man named Jay also said he was preparing to ride out the storm on his yacht.
“Everything that happened was meant to happen, everything was preordained,” Jay told News Nation. “If I go ashore and the boat is destroyed, that means I wasn’t meant to be on it.”
