<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">John Paul Nohelj has lived in Steinhatchee for two decades. For him, the northwest Florida town set among marshes and forests is paradise on Earth, and he won't leave -- despite being in the crosshairs of a churning hurricane.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Little does he care about the evacuation order issued by authorities for his county and several others along Florida's Gulf coast, where Hurricane Idalia is forecast to roar ashore early Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sitting on the porch of his creaky wooden home, Nohelj appears unfazed by what could be a looming disaster.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I've lived on the coast of Florida my whole life and this is where I love to be," the 71-year-old, who breathes with the help of an oxygen tank, tells AFP Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you live near the water, you're gonna get a wet butt once in a while," he says, downplaying the hurricane threat that has many of his neighbors scrambling to evacuate to safer regions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steinhatchee is a quiet pocket of Florida. It has some 1,000 residents, lush trees, beautiful wooden homes and abundant water, notably the river that runs through town and into the nearby Gulf of Mexico.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Idalia is forecast to strengthen into a major Category 3 hurricane by early Wednesday, gaining a force that the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warns could lead to catastrophic destruction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dozens of people in town were finalizing preparations before the storm made landfall. Most are evacuating the town and heading inland -- but not before trying to salvage some of their belongings and fortify their homes before leaving.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stephanie Moon, 37, has loaded as much furniture as she can into a moving truck with the help of friends. She lives alone across the river with her dog Molly, and decided pull up stakes and head to Georgia, the state just north of Florida where she aims to ride out the storm with relatives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I just hope our beautiful little town is still here after the hurricane, and that we come back to hopefully not a whole lot of devastation," she says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the town center, several residents hustle in and out of the only grocery store still open, Maddie's Market, next to a gas station. Like many houses, the storefront's windows are boarded up with plywood to protect them from gale-force winds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But there is another fear here: flooding.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Storm surges could reach as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters) in this rural region of Florida known as the Big Bend.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jody Griffis, co-owner of a local high and dry boat storage facility, joined several employees in a race against the clock.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They used forklifts to raise 25 boats to dry slots inside a huge building -- out of danger from potentially rising waters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I hope that this is still there when I get back on Thursday, and that nobody gets hurt," said the 56-year-old Griffis, who planned on retreating to safer ground but vowed to return for the inevitable post-hurricane clean-up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Such a commitment to the community is a hallmark of Steinhatchee, several residents said -- a value that will soon be put to the test with the hurricane's imminent passage. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>