- December 26, 2024
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Flagler County has rescinded its evacuation and curfew orders, but officials are still warning residents to be cautious when adventuring outdoors.
Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord urged residents to be cautious and avoid driving or walking through standing water. He said residents should keep in mind that standing water could hide dangers like downed power lines, debris or even wildlife like snakes and alligators.
He asked residents to try to stay home regardless of the lifted orders, just to keep the roads clear for crews working on removing debris and fixing downed power lines.
“There's power crews, there are cleanup crews, and people sometimes get in the way because they're curious, and those crews are trying to do their job,” Lord said. “At this point in time, I'd really rather people keep the roads free for the crews to go and do what they want to do.”
The county has also just started its damage assessment process, which will likely take a few weeks to complete, Lord said. Thankfully, he said, no one in the county sustained any storm-related injuries.
The property damage assessment process entails staff driving down streets and paying every single house a visit, Lord said, and then marking down if it is damaged.
Property damage will be another story. As of noon Oct. 11, the teams out assessing properties have covered close to 500 properties, over half of which have sustained what Lord called “affected” damage, or between 0-20% of the property was damaged. Another 136 were undamaged, 70 had minor damage and 16 had major damage.
No homes had been destroyed, he said.
These are, of course, far from the final numbers, Lord said — the process has just begun. Some homes were inaccessible because of the standing flood waters, but the assessment teams will return to those at a later date.
Lord said the assessment, once completed, will be sent to the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA will then come out to do its own assessment with the county, which will then determine if the community qualifies for individual assistance.
“That whole assessment is totally separate from the fire and the law enforcement crews that went out first to check on life safety issues,” Lord said.
Lord said as of now, there is no FEMA assistance for Hurricane Milton damage available yet for Flagler County residents, nor will it be available until the assessment process is finished. That process can typically take between two weeks and a month.
It may be quicker for Flagler County residents — just a couple of weeks — because Hurricane Milton passed close to the area and because of the flooding impacts on the county, Lord said.
In the meantime, he said, residents can call the Emergency Operation Center’s Call Center at 386-313-4200, depending on what kinds of help they need. If they’re in need of help with things like cutting trees on their properties — typically, a job that is at the homeowner’s expense and ability — Lord recommended residents check out CrisisCleanup.org.
The website is a national nonprofit that connects volunteer organizations with community members in need. In Flagler County, it typically connects to Flagler Volunteer Services.
Some 16,000 Flagler County residents are still without power, though that number is significantly reduced from the 50,000 residents that lost power overnight between Wednesday, Oct. 9 and Thursday, Oct. 10.
“A big, big, big jump in the number of customers restored overnight last night,” Lord said.
