- November 23, 2024
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Though Hurricane Milton has since passed offshore, Flagler County is still expecting to feel its impact in the incoming high tides.
Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord said the ocean’s expected 3-5 foot storm surge from Milton won’t peak until around 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10. For the Intracoastal Waterway, that peak won’t occur until around 7 p.m. tonight, depending on where a resident lives, Lord said.
“Storm Surge has not peaked for us yet,” Lord said. “We are not out of the woods yet.”
Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley told the Observer that, from his house along the Intracoastal, he was watching the water rise as it was supposed to be reaching the peak of low-tide.
“If the water level is increasing when the tide's going out, then when the tide's coming in, it's really going to increase,” he said.
Spradley said residents to stay informed as best as possible and to use the Flagler County’s Emergency Management website and social medias to do so. That source is as current as can be, he said.
“Information is king,” Spradley said.
The Crescent Lake area is also expected to see more flooding from tides in the coming weeks. Lord said that though there is no exact modeling done for the Crescent Lake area itself, based on modeling for the nearby St. Johns River of the tide cycle, the tide cycle could peak around Oct. 23.
“It’s not an exact science,” Lord said. “[But] this may be almost a two or three week long high tide cycle of reflooding out in the Crescent Lake, Dead Lake area, potentially.”
Despite the incoming storm surge peaks, Lord said, the county is preparing to rescind its evacuation order.
The Rymfire Elementary School shelter will remain open for now, he said, while Flagler County continues its assessments, though those in residence can leave whenever they want. For those at the shelter who rely on the county's transportation system to get home, they will have to wait until the county has the green light from first responders.
If the shelter needs to remain open another night, it will do so, he said.
Lord and Spradley both urged residents to stay at home while the county and municipalities begin sorting through the debris and downed trees and power lines.
“There's no reason to be out there,” Spradley said. “It’s just prudent to stay home.”
At this point, Lord said, around 45,000 residents are still out of power, he said, though that number may fluctuate. For a short while, even the Emergency Management Center’s power went out overnight.
Lord said between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m., one of the Flagler County Emergency Management Center’s generators went out, forcing the main 911 center to go to its backup location. While the 911 center was down, Lord said, the calls automatically rolled over to St. Johns County, as part of a standing agreement.
“Everything is back up and running normal now, so we are good to go,” he said.
Even with the outage, the county’s call center has received and answered around 400 calls on Wednesday and 512 calls so far on Thursday.
Overnight as Milton passed south of Flagler County, the county received around 7 inches of rain — that’s a total of 16 inches of rain since Oct. 5, Lord said. Thankfully, he said, the forecast ahead shows the county should not receive much more rain in the next few days.
First responders are out performing inspections, he said, and the county hopes to begin assessing property and building damages Thursday afternoon.
Sustained winds in the county averaged between the 20-40 mph range, with Flagler Beach having gusts of wind peaking at 72 mph. The highest wind gust was in Marineland at around 2:50 a.m., where one wind gust measure at 92 mph.
Several roads have been closed in Flagler County for a variety of reasons, from downed power lines to being impassible because the road is underwater. Below is the full list of critical road closures listed on Flagler County’s Emergency Management website:
