Photo for Headline Surfer by Steve Biebs / It's the calm before the storm as shown in this poignant still image of a solitary surfer walking along the World's Most Famous Beach in Daytona at twilight Sunday, a little more than 24 hours before a mandatory evacuation involving a quarter-of-a-million Volusia County beachside residents and tourists pack up and head west across the two bridges in Ormond Beach, four more bridges in Daytona Beach and Daytona Beach Shores and the two bridges in New Smyrna Beach.
By HENRY FREDERICKDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Though still uncertain as to whether the category 5 monster Dorian will make the northeast turn off the Bahamas or continue west and strike the Florida coastline, government leaders in Volusia Couinty aren't Volusia County government officials aren't taking any chances.
A mandatory evacuation order has been signed by Volusia County Chair Ed Kelley for commencement of of the order beginning 10 a.m. for all beachside residents east of the Intracoastal waterways from Ormond by-the-Sea down to Bethune Beach straddling the Canaveral National Seashore, and points in between - principally Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach Shores, Poncve Inlet and New Smyrna Beach.
The mandatory evacuation also includes all low-lying areas and mobile home communities throughout Volusia County.
Daytona beachside resident Shirley Dacenzo, a widow, who lives alone, acknowledged being frightened by the enormity of Dorian and its destructive might, but the she's determined to stay put in her beachside home and ride it out despite dire warnings of the potential for Dorian to make landfall somewhere along the Sunshine State's shoreline between West Palm Beach to the south, Jacksonville to the north, and Daytona Beach smack-dab in the middle.
"I even have to stop watching the news after a while - just gets the best of me and stresses me out," Dacenzo wrote in a Facebook post. "I can't afford to be upset and stressed with my health issues and I will end up having a nervous breakdown. There's nothing we can do about it - we're not going to really know what's going to happen in Daytona Beach here until this hurricane leaves the Bahamas all this now it's just a guessing game."
Should a direct strike on Florida's coastline become a reality, Dorian would bring sustained winds of at least 150 mph, a massive storm surge of at least 20 feet, and almost certain catastrophic loss of life and property unmatched in modern times, save for Hurricane Andrew in 1992, described as Florida's most destructive hurricane that leveled whole communities in South Florida.
And therein is the rub - the incessant waiting game and the phrase made famous in a song by The Clash: Should I Stay or Should I go?
But chancing it "would be "cataclysmic," Jim Judge, the director of the Emergency Management Operations for Volusia County has said repeatedly in press briefings for the last several days now of the impact Hurricane Dorian would have on greater Daytona Beach if it were to make landfall in th vicinity of the World's Most Famous Beach.
But chancing it "would be "cataclysmic," Jim Judge, the director of the Emergency Management Operations for Volusia County has said repeatedly in press briefings for the last several days now of the impact Hurricane Dorian would have on greater Daytona Beach if it were to make landfall in the vicinity of the World's Most Famous Beach.
