Hurricane Idalia: Recovery efforts are focused on restoring power to Florida communities in the sweltering heat post Hurricane Idalia
CNN – Hurricane Idalia: Recovery efforts are focused on restoring power to Florida communities in the sweltering heat post Hurricane Idalia, which caused a record-high storm surge and caused thousands of homes to be damaged. Nearly 95,000 homes and businesses in several counties were reporting power outages on Friday, and temperatures are expected to hit 95 degrees on Friday. The exact death toll in Idalia and the full extent of damage in Florida were unclear as of late Thursday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing Mutual Assistance resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is on standby to help. Residents of Cedar Key, Horseshoe Beach and Steinhatchee along the west coast in the Big Bend area have reported significant flood damage, while some residents said they were relieved the fallout from Idalia wasn't as bad as they expected.
Veröffentlicht : vor 2 Jahren durch Camilo Morgan in Weather
Hurricane Idalia: Recovery efforts are focused on restoring power to Florida communities in the sweltering heat post Hurricane Idalia
As many communities along Florida’s west coast suffer from sweltering heat without air conditioning or electricity on Friday, crews are struggling to restore power to tens of thousands of people in the wake of Hurricane Idalia.
Idalia triggered a record-high storm surge, knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of people, after making landfall Wednesday morning as a powerful Category 3 storm, the strongest to hit Florida’s coastal Big Bend region in more than a century.
As of about 6 a.m. Friday, nearly 95,000 homes and businesses in several counties were reporting power outages, according to PowerOutages.us. But officials say turning lights back on is a top priority after the hurricane damaged thousands of homes and made many streets impassable due to severe flooding and debris, as well as downed trees and power lines.
“The majority of the outages are currently occurring in the Big Bend area — many of the rural counties that bore the brunt of the storm,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference Thursday. “And so the number one priority is to start connecting those back together.”
The urgent need for power restoration comes as temperatures in the Big Bend region — the area between the Panhandle and the peninsula — continue to be expected to hit 95 degrees on Friday. There is also no clean running water in some areas.
Additionally, it could rain up to 3 inches in parts of the Big Bend region Friday through Saturday, which could hamper recovery efforts as those areas are already flooded from Idalia.
Shonteria Hills had few options as she tried to cool off at her local library in Monticello — a small town about 30 miles east of Tallahassee — but couldn’t because it was also in the dark.
“It’s going to be very tough. “It’s going to be very tough living in an area that’s already extremely hot,” Hills told CNN affiliate WCTV. “We’re already in the heat. No air. No food. We really don’t know how to survive this. We really need answers as to when power will be available again.”
Deanne Criswell, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Thursday that the number one concern right now is restoring power, noting that Mutual Assistance resources have been deployed and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is on standby to help .
To make matters even more difficult, the rain and humidity that hit after Idalia’s breakthrough meant temperatures felt well above 100 degrees on Thursday.
The destruction Idalia left in Florida was not as severe as it could have been. Still, the violent storm flooded thousands of homes, ripped off roofs and dumped waist-deep amounts of water on many streets. As it weakened to a tropical storm, it also devastated the Carolinas with severe flooding and gale force winds in southern Georgia.
As of late Thursday, the exact death toll in Idalia and the full extent of damage in Florida were unclear.
After touring the hardest-hit communities of Cedar Key, Horseshoe Beach and Steinhatchee along the west coast in the Big Bend area on Thursday, DeSantis and Criswell said they witnessed significant flood damage.
Some residents told CNN they were relieved the fallout from Idalia wasn’t as bad as they expected.
Anthony Altman, the business owner of EXPLORIDA, an ecotourism company that offers manatee and scallop tours, said the impact on his property could have been worse had he not been prepared for an evacuation before the storm.
Altman said he rented a truck and removed his goods from his store at Crystal River before Idalia made landfall, which he says helped minimize damage. Altman and his staff have begun the cleanup and hope to be able to reopen soon.
“We have about 22 employees that are with us, and they’re 22 families and they’re all from the area, so we want to open up to them,” Altman said.
Meanwhile, in Cedar Key — which is about 55 miles north of Crystal River — several homes along the water were destroyed, while homes farther inland appeared untouched. Heather Greenwood, who runs Cedar Key Bed & Breakfast on the island, told CNN she was relieved Your property was only minimally damaged.
“Look at what’s positive about it all. I mean, our house is still standing. For some, that’s not the case,” Greenwood said, noting that there were no fatalities in her community.
But deaths have also been reported elsewhere. Two men were killed in separate weather-related accidents Wednesday morning as Idalia speeded across Florida, said Sgt. Steve Gaskins of the state’s highway patrol patrol.
On Thursday, DeSantis said, “To date, there has been one confirmed fatality, and it was a traffic accident in Alachua County.” It’s not clear why the governor and highway patrol have different numbers for weather-related deaths. CNN has asked for clarification.
Another death has been reported in southern Georgia’s Lowndes County, where a man trying to cut down a tree on a highway died after a tree fell on him, Sheriff Ashley Paulk told CNN.
According to some experts, the human impact could have been far worse. They credited both the accurate prediction and people’s decision to heed evacuation warnings.
“It appears that people have heeded that call, and for that we are grateful,” said Kevin Guthrie, who heads the Florida Department of Emergency Management.
The governor echoed Guthrie’s stance, “I think those officers in these really hardest-hit counties … did a good job.” I think the citizens have responded very appropriately,” DeSantis said Thursday.
DeSantis also praised the accuracy of Idalia’s forecast.
The National Hurricane Center issued its first Idalia forecast last Saturday — back when the storm was raging near Cozumel, Mexico — forecasting a landfall in the United States within 10 miles of where it made five days actually struck later, near Keaton Beach (Florida). And by then, at least 28 Florida counties had issued evacuation orders.
“Those predictions were pretty accurate, especially compared to what happened with Hurricane Ian — where within 48 hours we might have had a Big Bend impact and then suddenly migrated to southwest Florida,” DeSantis said Thursday.
The low death toll is “probably something that most people wouldn’t have bet on four or five days ago if they knew how strong the storm was going to be,” DeSantis said. “Well, I take my hat off to the local people who did a good job.”
Themen: Florida, Hurricanes