One young couple in Tallahessee told Daily Express US they feel lucky to have come out of Hurricane Helene unscathed after fearing for the worst. The engaged couple, Adia Dauti and Jake Schenk, both 26, moved a few years ago from their home state of New Jersey to the ninth floor of a high-rise building in the capitol city near Florida State University, where he graduated from law school in the spring. The native northeasterners recalled feeling anxious upon hearing about the incoming Category 4 storm, which brought an onslaught of heavy rain and subsequent flooding.
The storm made landfall Thursday evening in Florida 's Big Bend region. Terrifying aerial images capture devastation after Hurricane Helene hit Florida Hurricane Helene sees Florida brace for 'unsurvivable' storm with 130mph winds She recalls the Tallahessee, about 30 miles from the coast, was "destroyed" after the last hurricane despite not even coming in their direction. The couple decided to reach out to a friend, a professional meteorologist, on Thursday afternoon to seek guidance on the best course of action and were advised to flee to his family's home in Fort Lauderdale, in the south of the state.
However, they feared they did not have enough time to make the roughly six-and-a-half-plus-hour drive with the storm scheduled to make landfall in the early evening. So, instead, the couple stayed put and prayed that their precautionary actions – taking in balcony furniture and buying non-perishable food – wou.