TAMPA – It may not be Gasparilla season yet, but apparently that doesn’t mean you won’t see boats parading down Bayshore Boulevard.

With South Tampa’s famous street under water due to Hurricane Helene, a trio of Donald Trump supporters took the opportunity to ride a boat along the Bayshore during Thursday morning’s high tide. Their blue “Trump 2024” flag fluttered in the wind as they sped north near Orleans Avenue, their engine barely audible over the roar of the wind in a video shot by Cory Watilo.

The entire length of Bayshore Boulevard is in Evacuation Zone A, included in the county’s evacuation order that went into effect at 9 a.m. Thursday. The video showed waves crashing over the balustrade.

Flooding occurs regularly in Bayshore during hurricanes and other storms. Last year during Hurricane Idalia, a paddleboarder was spotted battling wind and waves on the flooded road. And almost every hurricane, fake photos of a shark swimming along the bayshore go viral.

Forecast of the rise of Hurricane Helene

Although the water had receded by midday Thursday, Tampa police closed much of Bayshore to traffic and expect more flooding as Hurricane Helene moves west.

The hurricane is expected to make landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region tonight as a possible Category 4 storm, but its massive wind field is pushing water inland along the entire Gulf Coast.

A storm surge of 5 to 8 feet is expected in the Tampa Bay area tonight as strong winds from the south keep more water in the bay. These rise numbers will be higher to the north – perhaps up to 20 feet near landfall.

Earlier in the day, the sheriff of neighboring Pinellas County warned coastal residents not to play “stupid games” and urged those in evacuation zones to “get out.”

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge and Howard Frankland Bridge were closed to traffic as of Thursday afternoon due to the weather.