In his 58 years, John Posey, a lifelong resident of the Forgotten Coast of Florida on the remote eastern edge of the Panhandle, had never evacuated for a hurricane — neither for Dennis in 2005, nor for Michael in 2018.

But on Wednesday, as he stood outside his namesake seafood restaurant in Panacea, Fla., a community of about 800 near the marshy shores of Ochlockonee Bay, Mr. Posey admitted that this hurricane felt different. Helene was closing in and, for the first time, he wasn’t sure he could stay.

Across Florida’s Big Bend region, which has already endured two other hurricanes in 13 months, many more people appeared to be heeding evacuation orders this time, leaving the small towns that dot the coast eerily empty on Thursday.

That was especially true in three rural counties that had taken the rare step of ordering mandatory countywide evacuations. Homes and businesses in Wakulla County, where Panacea is, were boarded up. In Crawfordville, even the local Waffle House was covered with plywood.

The streets of Carrabelle, a waterfront city with a population of about 2,600 in neighboring Franklin County, appeared mostly deserted. In Taylor County, the sheriff’s office asked residents staying home to email local officials so that they could track who might need rescuing after the storm.