(WPRI) — Rhode Islanders vacationing along Florida’s Gulf Coast aren’t in the storm’s direct path but are already feeling the impacts of Hurricane Helene.

“There are some tornado warnings. There’s a gust picking up right now,” Dan Landry said while talking to 12 News.

Landry is from East Providence but is spending a week with his wife in Gulfport near St. Petersburg.

The couple was staying in a mobile home but were told to evacuate. They chose to move to a clubhouse nearby.

“Mobile home’s not the best to be in, in a hurricane,” Landry explained. “People come down here, they have shutters to close off the windows and doors… generator here as well so we don’t lose power.”

Wendy Moreash of Hopkinton is in Tarpon Springs, on vacation with her family. “This, for me, is my first hurricane down here,” she said.

Moreash is also in an evacuation but decided to stay put. She isn’t worried about flooding since the place they are staying in is at a higher elevation, but there are still concerns over the wind and rain.

“My friend’s husband and her son are linemen. They’ve been on storm detail all day,” she said. “One just got sent home because the conditions are too bad, so they’ll go out later on.”

Landry and Moreash are both hoping they’ll be able to return home to Rhode Island sometime next week, weather permitting.

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