The yearly "Build a Bucket" effort by Leon County, the City of Tallahassee and organizations like the Red Cross to help area residents prepare for hurricanes was held on Saturday (6/3). The turnout beat all previous records.
By 6:30 Saturday morning, people were already lining up outside the Centre of Tallahassee's Pavilion for an event that wouldn't start for another 2 1/2 hours. Many hundreds then went inside to collect a complimentary plastic bucket of emergency supplies and meet folks like Andy Lahr from the National Weather Service.
"We're just trying to get folks prepared for all kinds of extreme weather," he said.
Danielle DeGuerre with the Leon County Library System recalled how those libraries helped people recover from last year's Hurricane Hermine.
"They were able to plug in and charge their phones and contact people," she remembered. "They got water and the Red Cross brought snacks...it was a beautiful thing!"
And the City of Tallahassee's Delmos Barber believed it was those kind of memories that drove Saturday's turnout.
"When we had the last hurricane, how we were all impacted and affected, that's making them come out and say, 'Hey,I got get serious!" Barber said.
Hurricane Season lasts through the end of November.
