The city of Tampa is getting ready for Helene.
Tampa has spent much of the summer cleaning out storm drains in flood-prone areas of the city, removing about 84 tons of debris. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said city workers will go back after Helene rolls through to clean them out once again.
But she urged people to be prepared now, before the storm hits.
"Any battle with Mother Nature, Mother Nature wins," Castor said. "And so you have to understand how quickly things can happen during a storm. So you don't want to wait to see how bad it gets before you heed the warnings."
Castor noted the city has been saturated from recent rains, and said flooding is expected to take place, especially in south Tampa and areas along Tampa Bay.
"These tropical storms and hurricanes usually come right about the time that we are saturated to the max. And that's the event now," Castor said. "We have had those unprecedented rain events where we've gotten four or five inches of rain in an hour. There is no stormwater system that can expel that amount of water in less than two hours."
Helene is predicted to be a Category 3 hurricane, with storm surge in the Tampa Bay as high as 8 feet.
