'We really dodged a bullet': Tallahassee spared the worst as Helene moved east

ORLANDO, Fla. — Tallahassee was spared the worst of a dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Helene that wreaked havoc from Tampa Bay to the Big Bend area Thursday.

The storm, packing winds of 140 mph, made landfall some 45 miles southeast of Tallahassee, much to the relief of residents and business owners Friday, many of whom were braced for the worst and still dealing with the aftermath of a series of destructive tornadoes in May.

“We really dodged a bullet,” said Jackie Skelding, owner of the Rare Bird, an antique shop that specializes in midcentury furniture and curios.

The May tornadoes destroyed both her and her boyfriend’s shops costing them 70% of their inventory. Fortunately she had just opened a second location two months earlier, so they still had income.

The tornadoes were completely unexpected, but she had plenty of advance notice for Helene and was determined to save what she could this time – covering items with plastic and moving furniture away from her wall-sized glass garage doors, placing sandbags where she knew water could get in and putting buckets under known roof leaks.

“I’d been preparing since Wednesday expecting a direct hit,” Skelding said. “Having lost our business in May I was very concerned the same thing would happen this time.

But like other Tallahassee residents, she was relieved Thursday to learn the storm had veered east of the state’s capital city. By midday, the weather was sunny and 80 degrees.

The storm’s path likely will bolster the myth that the “MagLab” at Florida State University keeps hurricanes from hitting Tallahassee dead-on.

“I think we owe the MagLab some thanks again. #Tallahassee #HurricaneHelene,” one woman wrote on X on Thursday morning.

The myth that the most powerful magnet in the world can control the weather here has endured among locals for decades, about as long as officials at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have tried to dispel it. “Standing 10 feet away from one of these magnets won’t affect the strip on your debit card, much less the weather patterns in the sky,” reads a display board visible to guests who tour the facility.

A couple of factors were responsible for Helene’s shift, most of all an incoming cold front that affected the upper level flow of the storm, NWS Meteorologist Gerald Worster said. The cold front accelerated and pushed the storm eastward.

The highest gust reported by the National Weather Service in Tallahassee was 67 mph at the Tallahassee International Airport at 12:01 am. The NWS rooftop rain gauge reported 3.6 inches of rain, Worster said.

Tallahassee didn’t completely escape Helene’s impact, though. Initial damage reports from the City of Tallahassee include more than 50 roads blocked by downed trees and limbs, 53,000 customers without power. Nine transmission lines, six substations and 46 circuits were out of service.

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