Sheriff takes grim tack with hurricane evacuation holdouts

Floridians along the coast who decided to stay put and ride out Hurricane Helene got a grisly warning from the local sheriff's office.

“If you or someone you know chose not to evacuate,” wrote the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office, “PLEASE write your, Name, birthday and important information on your arm or leg in A PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified.”

The warning, clearly referring to identification of post-mortem remains, was aimed at people who ignored mandatory evacuation orders and warnings about the storm's oncoming wallop. It's hard to see the message as anything but "stay at your own peril at the risk of death."

The sheriff’s office posted the warning to Facebook Thursday afternoon hours before the storm had arrived and scores of people lost power. Law enforcement also asked residents hunkering down to send an email to the sheriff’s office with their names, addresses, contact information and the number of people and pets at the location.

Hurricanes have pummeled the small rural county between Talahasee and Gainesville over the past few years. Idalia, a Category 3 hurricane, made landfall at the gulf coast county in August 2023 and Hurricane Debby, a Category 1, made landfall in August. 

Forecasters expect Hurricane Helene, a Category 4, to cause storm surge of to 20 feet high.

Gene Taylor, a former public official in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall there in 2005, offered another foreboding tip  to people considering riding out a potentially deadly storm surge. “Have life jackets and an ax, in case they have to chop through the attic roof to get out.”

Many people were rescued from rooftops when the water rose after Katrina and in other locations after severe flooding. 

Contributing: Dinah Pulver Voyles and Doyle Rice