Florida News That Impacts You – September 26th, 2024
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- The Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center is currently operating at Level III, or enhanced monitoring of the potential impacts of Hurricane Helene today. Tornadic risk may be the greatest risk for the area’s residents today as multiple tornado warnings were issued overnight for communities near Lake Okeechobee including Clewiston and Belle Glade.
- Public schools are closed for all districts from Broward County north along Florida’s east coast today due to the effects of Hurricane Helene. The Palm Beach County School District expects to resume normal operations tomorrow.
- Area colleges are also closed today including Florida Atlantic University, Palm Beach State College and Indian River State College. All three colleges expect to be back to normal class schedules on Friday.
- All area public beaches and piers are closed today, however Palm Tran is continuing normal operations. Palm Tran notes that if sustained winds of 35 mph or greater occur they will cease operations.
- Palm Beach County Commissioners are considering a program that would allow for condo associations to access low interest loans to assist with special assessments to comply with maintenance required under state law. Multiple commissioners told CBS 12, that regardless of if progress is made in a special session that Governor DeSantis said he will soon call, there’s still likely to be a need for many condo communities.
- It’ll be warm, wet and windy today with showers possible in tropical bands throughout the day and highs in the upper-80’s. Temperatures will be about 4 degrees warmer than usual for this date. A Flood Watch is in effect throughout the area. A Tropical Storm warning is in place for Lake Okeechobee and the entire eastern coastline. The National Hurricane Center is tracking three systems. Hurricane Helene is expected to develop into a major hurricane today with top winds of 130 mph on the approach to Florida’s Big Bend tonight. Tropical Storm Isaac has formed in the Northern Atlantic and is moving east, away from land and won’t be an issue. A disturbance off the coast of Africa and is also likely to develop as it makes its way towards the mid-Atlantic – it's unlikely to impact any populated areas.
- Gas prices rose three cents per gallon on Wednesday. The average price for regular unleaded in Florida is currently $3.17 per gallon. In Palm Beach County the average price is $3.33 per gallon, in Martin the average is $3.21 and in Indian River County the average is $3.17 per gallon.