JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Officials urged Duval County residents to stay inside Thursday as Hurricane Helene is forecast to bring a storm surge of up to 3 feet along the St. Johns River and winds of up to 70 mph, with the possibility of tornadoes.
RELATED | City of Jacksonville shares info on closures, shelters, bridges & more ahead of Helene
“Please remain sheltered at home today and tonight, if at all possible,” Mayor Donna Deegan said Thursday during a news conference.
Watch the full news conference with the City of Jacksonville’s latest update in the video below
Deegan said emergency road access teams (ERAT) are staged in Riverside, Normandy, Mandarin, Sandalwood, Southside, Northside and other neighborhoods.
The Duval County Emergency Operations Center was fully activated at 8 p.m. Tuesday ahead of Hurricane Helene.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office will have 40 additional officers ready to respond in case of an emergency.
JEA will have 430 line workers, 130 tree removal crews, and a total of 2,200 employees working Thursday and Friday.
Deegan asked residents to be patient in case of experiencing power outages, which she said are very likely to happen as the wind picks up.
“Please make sure that you’re patient with these crews,” Deegan said. “They’re going to be out in every way they can be as long as it’s safe, trying to get power back on as quickly as they can.”
MORE | Widespread power outages expected during Helene; JEA urges residents to be safe, patient
The National Weather Service issued a Tornado Watch for all Northeast Florida, and Southeast Georgia counties until 10 p.m. as Hurricane Helene continues to strengthen and is forecast to bring low-level winds favorable for tornadoes.
“A watch is a heads up saying ‘Hey, be aware for possible warnings,’” Angie Enyedi with the National Weather Service said.
Enyedi said our area will continue to see deteriorating conditions throughout the day, and said the peak will be after 5 p.m. Thursday through midnight.
“Please do not go outside in what we call lulls. You’ll get one band that comes across with heavy rainfall, and then the wind will subside a little bit. It is so dangerous to venture outside even between those lulls because of the wind stress that’s happened on the trees, it’s not going to take a really strong wind gust to possibly cause one of those to go down,” Enyedi said.
Bridges will remain open until weather conditions make that bridge unsafe for travel, according to Deegan.
All five shelters are open for residents in need, and JTA is offering free transportation to those shelters.
The city is also providing free shuttles to the Legends Center shelter for Ken Knight Drive residents throughout the duration of the storm.
“We are anticipating that everything returns to normal on Friday, obviously as I said, with this storm really hitting primarily into the evening and overnight, we really are going to have to monitor that,” Deegan said.
The city said debris from missed yard waste collections must be brought in and secured during the storm. No special collections will be performed Thursday outside of the normal collection. Plus, cans that have been picked up on Thursday should be brought in so they do not become projectiles.
Officials also urged residents to only call 911 in case of an emergency, as it is very important to keep the lines open for emergencies.
For non-emergencies, residents are asked to call 630- CITY (2489).
Click here to read our complete coverage of Hurricane Helene