Helene: Essential information for Clay County

As Helene begins to impact Northeast Florida, Clay County has provided residents with the following information:

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Hurricane Helene is now a major Category 4 hurricane and will make landfall near the Big Bend. The storm has shifted even further east since our last update, and that means a stronger chance of effects in our area. If it continues to shift, we could see hurricane conditions instead of tropical storm conditions.

We are already seeing the effects of Hurricane Helene and we expect that to ramp up around 11:00 PM tonight into Friday morning. Clay County is currently under a tornado watch.

Our shelters remain open.

We haven’t seen a change in the risks from this storm. They include downed trees, powerlines, and potential rain flooding. We could also see possible tornadoes along the St. Johns River in Orange Park, Fleming Island, and Green Cove Springs. Please stay at home if at all possible and have multiple ways to get alerts. You can sign up for alerts on alert.claycountygov.com .

You can report damage to the call center or on alert.claycountygov.com . The call center number is 1-877-252-9362. Of course, if you have a true emergency situation, please call 911.

While we don’t anticipate 911 failing, we do have backup communications in place:

You can call the sheriff’s office non-emergency number at 904-264-6512

You can call the fire rescue non-emergency number at 904-269-1047

You can call the call center

You can use CCSO’s SaferWatch app

We are also monitoring our social media platforms

We expect this storm to be out of our area by tomorrow morning, but please keep in mind there could be trees or downed powerlines over the roads, so please use caution.

Our Emergency Operations Center continues to be staffed through the evening. As always, we have all of this information on alert.claycountygov.com .

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