As of press time Thursday, we still weren’t sure exactly what the aftermath of Hurricane Helene would be, but we were pretty certain it wouldn’t be anything good. You, no doubt, know more as you’re reading this than we did when it was written, but one thing that was never in doubt was that Florida, and likely several other states, will need our help following this storm.

The forecast on Thursday had Helene barreling into Florida’s Big Bend area near Tallahassee overnight as either a Category 3 or 4 storm. The projection had the storm moving as fast as 25 mph at landfall, meaning it could be hundreds of miles inland before weakening back to tropical storm levels. That’s bad news for places like Atlanta, which was already bracing Thursday morning for wind, rain, power outages and downed trees.

Growing up on the Alabama Gulf Coast, I’m no stranger to hurricanes. I remember more of them from over the years than I care to list. It’s been 20 years since Ivan hit and I can still remember the “strip” in Gulf Shores being completely covered with sand and small towns like Atmore and Brewton looking like something out of a disaster movie in Ivan’s aftermath.

A year later, when Katrina hit New Orleans in ‘05, I was still in college in Tuscaloosa. I worked in the restaurant industry at the time and I remember very well serving so many people from the Big Easy who had evacuated. Many of them ended up staying for weeks in local hotels and I still recall how gracious they were; how friendly they were in the midst of being displaced from their homes; even how great of tippers they were. I remember how much we all tried to make them feel at home in Tuscaloosa. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement, from city hall down to restaurant workers, to help our visitors in any way we could during such a difficult time in their lives.

Fast forward to 2011, when a devastating line of storms ravaged several states, but hit Tuscaloosa particularly hard. It killed 64 people there alone. I no longer lived there in 2011, but I did have plenty of friends still in the area, and it was heartwarming to see people from all over – including our rivals from Auburn – show up to help in our time of need.

And it’s that spirit we’ll need to adopt in the days to come. I know this part of the South has plenty of experience with hurricanes and tornadoes, too. We just dodged a bullet last month when Hurricane Francine shifted east after making landfall and left us largely unscathed. And I also know how generous people are here. When Hurricane Ida made landfall around this time of year in 2021, I remember how many people from this area loaded up and made trips to southern Louisiana to help. And that aid went on for nearly a year after that storm. I wrote countless stories about groups physically going to help, churches and other organizations raising money or collecting supplies and several other ways people found to provide support for those impacted by the storm.

We’ll no doubt need to be prepared to do all of those things again after Helene, especially for our most immediate neighbors in Florida and Georgia. As I was getting ready for work Thursday morning, I watched the news and saw the familiar sights of people packing up to get out of the way of an advancing hurricane. Local authorities in the Tallahassee area were holding press conferences and law enforcement was already on the streets telling people they needed to evacuate. It’s a familiar, yet still uneasy feeling and while I hope Helene turns out to not be as catastrophic as many are projecting, the forecast is ominous at best.

So, whatever the case may be Friday as you’re reading this, and in the days and weeks to come, I hope we’ll all find time to whisper a prayer for those affected and to do whatever is in our power to help our neighbors during this difficult time.

Blake Bell is the general manager and executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.