Floridians flooded by Hurricane Helene

Florida resident Briana Gagnier and his family saw water seeping into their Holmes Beach home. They would pick up shoes and other items from the ground and place them on tables or beds – anywhere to place them on higher ground.

They even used towels to try to stem the seeping water – something Ms Gagnier called “silly” looking back on it.

Then there was a loud bang.

“My family and I all looked at each other,” the 29-year-old told the BBC. “Then the water started coming in.”

A door to their garage burst open, collapsing from Helen’s floodwaters. Ms. Gagnier said the flow reminded her of rapids in a river.

The family panicked. Ms. Gagnier grabbed her two dogs – Logan and Sunny – her wallet and portable chargers. She placed her chinchilla in a cage and placed it on the tallest piece of furniture she could find.

The water quickly rose up to their shoulders.

She and her family had to swim from their home, located on a barrier island off the Gulf Coast of Florida.

“Everyone was screaming and panicking,” she said. “Whatever your worst idea of ​​what this storm is, that’s what we’re seeing.”

Ms. Gagnier and her family ran to a neighbor’s house across the street. They ended up rescuing two elderly neighbors whose house caught fire. She said the cause is unclear, but appears to be related to a golf cart battery.

Her family lives in an evacuation zone and crews had warned those remaining behind that “no one was going to come get us” in an emergency, she said. Looking outside, she saw sofas, chairs, a bench and even a car passing by. The water remained above her mailbox for part of the evening, she adds.

“I just can’t believe this is real. The eye of the storm didn’t even hit us directly,” Ms. Gagnier said. “This island is completely devastated. Everywhere I look there is devastation.”

According to the US National Hurricane Center, Helene has now weakened to a tropical storm as it moves inland from Georgia, where it is expected to bring strong winds and more floods.

Resident of Anna Maria Island ML Ferguson told the BBC that homes and businesses were seeing water gushing into buildings as the hurricane approached.

The streets now look like rivers, she said.

The water quickly overwhelmed the beach bar where she works – the Bridge Tender Inn Dockside & Tiki Bar – with waves splashing the sign and pieces of seaweed clumped near the tables.

“We are resilient,” she said. “We keep an attitude of ‘and this too shall pass’.”

By the time she got home, water was starting to seep onto her porch.

“Oh my God, we’re literally at stage two,” she told the BBC in a telephone interview. “My house is because of the flood.”

Ms Ferguson quickly moved a few tables so she could place items on them to prevent the floodwaters from destroying their belongings.

But while she was speaking to BBC News, a person was driving down her street, causing a wake of water to splash inside.

“The water is already coming,” she exclaimed before quickly hanging up the phone to try to stop him.

Cainnon GreggAn oyster farmer in Wakulla County, Florida’s Big Bend region, has spent the past few days trying to protect his farm by sinking it to the bottom of the ocean.

His farm has already been destroyed once, during Hurricane Michael, a category five hurricane that hit the Florida Panhandle in 2018, and Mr. Gregg said he is determined to learn from that lesson .

“Let’s hope, and nothing is certain, that the farm is well seated and safe at the bottom,” he said. “But anything can happen.”

To weather the storm, Mr. Gregg plans to move to his hometown of Tallahassee with a friend who has a shelter.

The city is also in the hurricane’s predicted path and has not experienced a storm of this magnitude in recent memory.

“Right now, it’s almost a ghost town. Everything is closed. Everything is barricaded. » he said.

Denise O’Connor Badalamenti has seen countless hurricanes in her decades of living in Florida, but Helene has her more on edge than ever.

“I think it’ll be the one,” the 62-year-old told BBC News from her Bradenton home, located a few blocks from the water, as the storm got closer to making landfall.

“I feel like we’re still in the cone of being targeted, but then we get beaten at the last minute, but I don’t think we’ll get lucky again.”

His mother’s house has flooded six times over the years and this morning, water was already seeping into their driveway. Her family closed all the doors with duct tape, hoping to stop any flooding.

“This one is just huge. It’s scary,” Ms O’Connor Badalamenti said.

Following the advice of relief officials, she said she stockpiled supplies and prepared an assortment of food in case the power went out.

“We are prepared for the worst.”

Michael BobbitA clam farmer on Cedar Key Island in Big Bend, Florida, said some people in his community decided to stay put despite warnings.

“The last few hours have really just been a frantic effort to beg people to leave,” Mr Bobbit, 48, told the BBC on Thursday, before the storm made landfall.

“Here in Florida we kind of think we’ll get through this, it’s no big deal. But this isn’t one of those storms.

He said residents tried to “put sand in as many buildings as possible,” board up windows and secure the island’s clam farms.

“The mood is somber,” Mr. Bobbit said.

“A lot of people, when they leave the island, they hug and cry and say, ‘I hope we have a home to return to.’

Mickey Moore54, has lived in his Tallahassee home for about 15 years and the worst he’s seen from a hurricane was a power outage.

This one, he says, worries him.

His home is about 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico – and right in the path of the storm.

“A category four is so big,” he said, taking a break from a game of Monopoly with his two sons and wife.

“We have been lucky in past storms,” he adds. “We don’t take this for granted.”