HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. — Thousands of Florida’s Gulf Coast residents continue to pack up and evacuate their towns and cities.

What You Need To Know

  • Horseshoe Beach is a community of about 500 permanent residents along the big bend area of the nature coast in Dixie County

  • Everyone in the community spent Wednesday boarding up their homes and moving their possessions out

  • The community was hit hard by both hurricanes Debby and Idalia and residents there are preparing for the worst

  • Storm surge from Helene is expected to be between 15 to 18 feet for the area

Horseshoe Beach, located in the Big Bend area, is in the crosshairs of Hurricane Helene.

The community was hit hard by both hurricanes Debby and Idalia and residents there are preparing for the worst.

Mayor Jeff Williams has been helping to pack up the town hall.

“Because the building will flood,” he said. “Idalia had seven feet of water in the building. All the sheet rock, everything had to be ripped out. They were down here for three or four months.”

Some 500 permanent residents in the Gulf Coast community spent Wednesday boarding up windows and packing up their possessions.

Many were attaching their mobile homes to vehicles that could transport them away from the coast.

Several properties are on stilts and can withstand a 13-foot storm surge, however Helene may bring storm surges higher this time around.

Keith Brackett knows the power of storm surge at Horseshoe Beach.

His waterfront two-story property has 13 feet of water underneath his home built on stilts and was grateful no matter got inside his home.

“I feel sorry for the people that live here full time. This is their home,” he said. “I have a dry, safe place to go when I leave here. They don’t. So, they are uprooting their whole live, putting it in a moving van and moving their whole life out.”

Williams said he will require identification from anyone that wants to return to the area once the storm is gone.