NewsChannel 13 is continuing to stay in touch with people from the Capital Region who are living and visiting the southwest as Hurricane Helene takes aim at this area.

Terry Aunchman, originally from Whitehall, has been working as an educator in Florida for about 30 years and has endured about 16 or 17 hurricanes. He told NewsChannel 13’s Mark Mulholland on Thursday afternoon that even though he lives about 20 miles from the coast, there are concerns about an unprecedented storm surge.

“Here, locally, it’s, it’s the storm surge for the coastal areas. That’s the real major concern,” he said. “I’ve watched the local news and there are areas down, Mark, where we’ve gone for several years to watch the Gasparilla Pirate Parade. Those very streets and sidewalks that we stood on are all flooded, and that’s even before the major storm surges come.”

School was canceled Thursday and Friday. Aunchman worked at a school Thursday that has been turned into a shelter.

Those who live along the coast or in mobile homes are being asked to evacuate, he said.