INSIDER
Hurricane Helene, which slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a powerful Category 4 storm, left behind devastation due to high winds and a historic storm surge.
According to Taylor County Emergency Management officials, people who did not leave are asked to write their names and other important identifying information on their arms or legs in permanent marker so families can be identified and notified later.
Floridians are in the midst of hurricane season and a property insurance crisis.
Saying the insurance industry “dodged a bullet,” a reinsurance firm Thursday estimated that Hurricane Idalia caused $3 billion to $5 billion in insured losses.
Residents in the small community Jasper said that they’d never seen anything like what Hurricane Idalia brought to town on Wednesday. Whipping winds and sideways rain started pounding the area just before noon and dragged on across the day.
As friends and families flock to the beaches to celebrate the fourth of July, one Flordia family is in the hospital with 17-year-old Addison Bethea after she was attacked by a shark Thursday off the coast of Keaton Beach, Florida.
