- Live Oak underwent Helene's brutal winds that sent debris flying everywhere.
- Helene reportedly put 100% of Suwannee County out of power as it swept through.
- Watch the video to see what conditions looked like during and after the storm.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Roofs, trees and cars — all kinds of massive debris that blew through parts of Suwannee County throughout the night. I’m Kenya Cardonne in the Live Oak neighborhood, where businesses, homes and streets suffered from Helene’s forceful winds.
We rode out the worst of the storm from here and now we’re getting a look at the devastation in daylight.
Hours after Hurricane Helene unleashed its power on Live Oak, neighbors are touring the damage and getting to work.
I stuck it out in the Downtown area for the roughest part of the night when brutal winds sent debris flying everywhere.
In daylight, we get a clearer view of all the power lines, roof material and tree debris scattered across town.
“You know there’s not a lot of things that scare me. It sounded powerful. It was scary. I would not want to be out in it,” said Martin Stewart of Live Oak.
Stewart checked on us as he was hunkering down from inside one of the nearby businesses.
“For a long time, we didn’t feel it. There was very little rain and then all of a sudden, we could feel the gale force winds and it was strong.”
Storm spotter Norman Smith tells me he rode out the storm in Perry and was making his way through Live Oak on Friday, where he says he saw devastation at almost every corner.
“It’s more overwhelming, I’d say, for a hurricane than a tornado," Smith said. “It’s more overwhelming when you keep driving forever and you just see damage and it feels like it just never ends.”
Inflated water barriers seemed to have done the trick in keeping businesses from flooding the way they did after Hurricane Debby.
But, it appears Helene’s catastrophic winds stole the show this time.
I asked Steward, “what’s next for the town?”
He responded, “I guess we’re going to have to rebuild like we always do and just hope and pray that there’s not another one.”
Early Friday morning around midnight, Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that there were reportedly 100% outages throughout Suwannee County.
In Live Oak, Kenya Cardonne, ABC 27.
