Last Updated: 9:51 a.m.
Flagler County and city officials are breathing a collective sigh of relief. Despite the worst rain event Palm Coast has known in its history, despite some floodwaters in Flagler Beach’s low-lying areas and severe winds during Hurricane Milton’s passage over the region, the number of homes that experienced water intrusion have been limited to “a handful,” according to Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord.
The shelter at Rymfire Elementary is in the process of closing today, with a couple of dozen residents who had remained overnight. The curfew that was in effect the last two nights will be rescinded today.
FPL cut the number of customers without power by more than half overnight. There were more than 46,000 customers without power at nightfall Thursday. At daybreak, the number was down to 16,500, or 22 percent of the county’s electricity customers, though some neighborhoods, such as the area between the Hammock Dunes toll bridge and Palm Harbor golf course, had power through much of the the storm, but lost it Thursday morning.
In Palm Coast, at least 57 houses have experienced some degree of wind damage, but Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin called most of that damage “cosmetic.” Some roads remain closed, including especially Old Kings Road south of Oak Trails. But there are no significant reports of flooded homes in the city. Concerns that parts of the Woodlands would flood also receded as waters rose only so far, never crossing past driveways. The Woodlands are in a bowl adjacent to Graham Swamp, where a lot of water drains.
“So it does cause some anxiety, but it is part of the system, and as long as that water does not get to your front door, then the system has operated very, very well,” Alfin said.
Damage reports from homeowners are still trickling in, and some more reports may be forthcoming from Flagler Beach’s lowest-lying areas–Lambert Avenue, Palm Drive, South Flagler Avenue. But on South Flagler, a few inches above the bank of the Intracoastal, water rose last night, reached into garages and a few homes, but then receded. City Commissioner Rick Belhumeur, who owns several properties along South Flagler Avenue–and suffered severe flood damages in previous hurricanes–said he got 4 to 5 inches in his garage. “The water never got to the barricades at my other houses,” he said this morning. “Some other people with lower houses got water inside their homes but not near as deep as Ian.”
Ian flooded large swaths of the barrier island in 2022, as had Irma in 2017. Irma affected 400 homes.
“We’re only directly aware of less than a handful, less than seven at this point,” Lord said of flooded homes. “At the end of the day though, if someone’s insured, they take care of it, they don’t have to report it to us. It’s not a requirement. But we are aware of three in Palm Coast and two somewhere else, five or seven” total, so far.
Palm Coast’s stormwater system, frequently criticized by residents over the past year or two, performed remarkably well despite 16 inches in a 24-hour period at the height of the storm, in addition to several inches before that peak.
“It does work as designed,” Lord said of Palm Coast’s stormwater system. “A lot of people don’t realize that the street is part of the stormwater system, and it is okay to have 3, 4, 5 feet of water in the street, and that’s how the system is designed. The street allows that to happen. Is it inconvenient? 100 percent. But that’s the design in the ITT section on Palm Coast. And as long as [water] doesn’t enter the home, then it functions. If it enters the home, then it didn’t function.”
It didn’t enter into homes, with three exceptions so far. Wind damage is a slightly different story. “We’re up to 57 homes that we have identified that have some level of damage as a result of the storm, although many of them are what we would call cosmetic or minimal damage,” Alfin said. “A few tiles here and there, perhaps some storm debris in the yard, but nothing structural. We haven’t really identified any serious structural issues with homes that would make them unsafe.” He said the “rainbow has not quite risen yet,” with a lot of work ahead.
This morning Alfin and city administrators visited with public works and stormwater crews, who will also be treated to a meal this evening.
There has also been wind damage to homes in Flagler Beach and on the west side of the county.
[This is a developing story.]
