Days before Helene makes landfall, Davis Islands is sunny and smooth sailing. But behind closed doors, residents are preparing for a storm.
“I just make sure I have enough food in the refrigerator,” Kevin King said.
“I got my, you know, water and canned goods and paper towel, you know, stuff like that,” Jessie Parks said.
Many say they’re not completely worried about the storm because storms generally don’t rock Davis Islands too badly.
“I think sometimes it’s hyped up a little bit more than it actually ends up being. So I think people know what to do that. You know, I’ve evacuated a couple times in the past, like with Ian, I evacuated, and I think with Idalia, I evacuated. But last time with Debby, a month ago, I didn’t. And, you know, again, the streets flooded, but that was it, you know, it came up to the curb, and then that was it,” King said.
Though the people here on the island aren’t seeing impacts like other neighborhoods, stormwater here is a conversation happening at the city level.