Before conditions get worse, Alex and Raven Kramer and their four children — ages 3 to 8 — decided to bike a mile from their home in Gulfport, near Tampa, to see the beach on Thursday morning. They wanted to check out the water and see whether there was any trace of the storm yet.

Going to a theme park? Helene to make landfall in Florida as very large possibly Category 3 hurricane with impacts felt hundreds of miles from the eye

The hurricane’s predicted storm surge could be devastating in the coastal areas of Florida’s Big Bend, where the peninsula meets the Panhandle.