Mike Norvell details contingency plan for Hurricane Helene
Tropical Storm Helene is building up strength in the Gulf of Mexico before it is expected to strengthen into a category 3 hurricane before making landfall. Naturally, that’s going to have an impact on plenty of college football teams in the area, like the Florida State Seminoles.
Ahead of the storm making landfall, FSU head coach Mike Norvell met with the media and shared the details of his contingency plan for dealing with the storm.
“We’re continuing to track that,” Mike Norvell said. “I would say it’s still a lot of information. Today is a big day for gaining more information of what could be our reality.”
Norvell is preparing for a road game this weekend with the Seminoles traveling to Dallas to take on the SMU Mustangs. That means that FSU needs to fly out of Tallahassee and the Florida panhandle to get to that game. Normally, that would be on Thursday. However, that’s the day that Hurricane Helene is expected to hit.
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“I feel good about the plans that we have,” Norvell said. “I feel good about any potential adjustments, if necessary, but it’s something we’re absolutely tracking.”
FSU isn’t the only program that could be dealing with issues as they relate to the storm. In fact, Miami, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Stanford, Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Ole Miss are all teams that could be impacted by the wind and the rain from the storm.
Florida A&M, a school that like Florida State is located in Tallahassee, already was forced to reschedule its game against Alabama A&M. That game was set to be played in Tallahassee and was moved to Nov. 29 due to Hurricane Helene.
As of now, Helene is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by Wednesday morning when it’s off the coast of Mexico. It will then rapidly strengthen as it enters the Gulf of Mexico, feeding on the warm waters, and becoming a category 3 by the time it makes landfall. As of now, the models show the storm hitting the Florida panhandle, parts of Alabama, and Georgia before continuing north through the United States.
The storm is expected to gain 35 mph of wind speed in less than 24 hours and by the time it’s a category 3 hurricane the storm will have a wind speed of 111-129 mph. So, for a football coach like Mike Norvell, this storm isn’t anything to mess with and caution is warranted.