- October 29, 2024
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Officials in Palm Coast, Ormond Beach and other area cities are asking locals to conserve water to avoid straining the cities' utility systems as floodwaters recede.
"We're still going to continue to ask people today to not do the laundry just yet and not take too many showers," Palm Coast Public Information Officer Brittany Kershaw said Friday morning on Flagler Broadcasting's "Free For All Friday" radio program. "We're still working on getting all of this water to flow out of our city, and it's going to be really important. I know we feel like we are at the end of this storm, but we do have a lot of water that is making its way down into our stormwater system, and it's going to go into our wetlands, and the next 48 hours are really imperative."
It will likely take about 48 hours for water to recede in the city's Woodlands area, she said.
"Our utility staff is working hard to continue providing water service to all customers. The city is asking residents to conserve water as much as possible for the next few days," Ormond Beach public information officer Jenn Elston said in a news release. "Any water that goes down the drain creates wastewater that further stresses the wastewater system and impacts the water treatment plant and the water reclamation facility."
Many streets, and some buildings, are flooded in both counties.
"It's important I think for for residents to understand, wherever wherever they are in the county, that this is a timeline now this is going to be days, if not longer, before the water can recede and find its natural home," Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin said on the radio program. "... The storm has gone, but the problem still persists, especially in terms of potential water intrusion into into homes."
Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord flew over Flagler County in the county's Fire Flight emergency helicopter Friday morning Friday.
The Intracoastal is flooded, and there's a small beach dune breach that will likely be a problem only during high tide, he said. The area on the west side of Flagler County near Crescent Lake is also flooded.
But in Palm Coast, water seems to have collected largely in streets and swales — not homes.
"Many areas of Palm Coast looked untouched. The canals are extremely high, but we didn't see any home intrusion," Lord said. "Same thing with the the unincorporated parts of the county, between like Old Kings and the Intracoastal. There's water very close to homes, but does not seem [to be] any obvious home intrusion."
The county has crews out working on a more detailed assessment, he said.
In Flagler County, about 28% of power customers were still without electricity as of Friday morning, Sept. 30, while in Volusia County, 62% were without power.
"FPL was able to restore power to 14,000 customers and as you can imagine, it is ongoing," FPL representative Angela Ledford said on "Free For All Friday. "Our crews are out there; they've been working through the night. And, as you can imagine, it was one of those situations where we had to wait for the storm to pass and go in between those bands of severe weather before we could even assess and then do the work."
At one point, she said, 1.2 million people in Florida had no power after the storm. Statewide, more than 50% of FPL customers' had their power restored as of 7 a.m. Friday morning. Flooding, blocked streets and soft, soggy ground are impediments as approximately 21,000 FPL workers maneuver to continue restoring service.
"These [outage] numbers are very high, and it is going to take some time, because there is some flooding in this area, in particular, that has to recede before the crews can even get there to restore the power," Ledford said. "... Just know that if your power's out, we do know it, and we're working on it."
FPL hopes to be able to provide Flagler County customers with estimated restoration times this evening, she said. View FPL's outage tracker map at https://www.fplmaps.com.
