Gov. Ron DeSantis Declares State of Emergency for Majority of Florida Counties in Prep for Incoming Storm

By Hannah Knudsen

Update: The governor has extended the state of emergency to 61 counties. Original story below:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week declared a state of emergency for 41 of Florida’s 67 counties ahead of what is expected to be a major hurricane — Category 3 or higher —  making landfall somewhere in the state’s panhandle by the end of the week.

DeSantis signed Executive Order (EO) 24-208, Emergency Management (Emergency Management – Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine) on Monday.

As well as urging Floridians to make an emergency plan and stay up to date, the governor wrote:

We are tracking Potential Tropical Cyclone #9, which is likely to strengthen this week as the system enters the Gulf of Mexico. I have issued Executive Order 24-208, declaring a state of emergency in 41 counties in Florida that could see potential impacts from the storm and directing Florida agencies to prepare as necessary.

The counties named in the emergency declaration are Alachua, Bay, Bradford, Calhoun, Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, Columbia, Dixie, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Hernando, Hillsborough, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lee, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Monroe, Okaloosa, Pasco, Pinellas, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Wakulla, Walton, and Washington.

The tracks of the storm system — expected to rapidly intensify into what will become Hurricane Helene — are continuing to wobble east and west on the panhandle of the Sunshine State, but the National Hurricane Center (NHC) is warning that the effects will go far outside of the storm’s eventual eye, with the “dirty” side of the storm on the east side.

The 5:00 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicts that the storm system will near hurricane strength “when it reaches the far northwestern Caribbean Sea early Wednesday.”

“This system is expected to intensify into a major hurricane before it approaches the northeastern Gulf Coast on Thursday, and the potential for life-threatening storm surge and damaging hurricane-force winds along the coast of the Florida Panhandle and the Florida west gulf cost is increasing,” it added.

According to AccuWeather forecasters, “People in the Florida Panhandle, Big Bend region and much of the central and eastern Gulf coast need to complete preparations for major hurricane impacts by Wednesday night before hazardous conditions arrive by Thursday.”