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Last Updated: 9:32 a.m.
“This horror will grow mild, this darkness light,” Floridians and Flagler County residents may be telling themselves–perhaps in not so many words–as Hurricane Milton edged off the coast of Florida this morning, still as a hurricane, leaving a wide swath of destruction and 3.2 million customers without power in its enormous path.
Flagler County was among the hardest-hit in terms of power cuts, with 69 percent of residents without power at dawn, or 50,500 out of 73,400 accounts. The county is still experiencing heavy rain and winds, though with periods of calm.
Even Flagler County’s Emergency Operations Center lost power, and its backup generators failed, causing ripple effects that affected the sheriff’s 911 system, which went on back-up plans. The EOC’s phones were also down.
“Our network is still down, so we’re kind of struggling through keeping ourselves up at this point in time,” Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord said, speaking on his cell phone. “But county as a whole, oddly enough, we did not hear a lot of trees down. I know the fire crews did run some stuff. We do have a lot of flooding in neighborhoods throughout the county.” But crews have only now started to get damage assessments. “So we don’t have a lot to share other than we have a significant flooding. We also know that all of the border utilities are urging, strongly, urging people only use water for emergency purposes. It’s not an issue with the water system. It’s an issue with the sewer system. They are overloaded because of all the flooding in the rain.”
Lord said there were “unofficial reports of house flooding.”
Palm Coast Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill, the city’s incident commander for the emergency–with City Manager Lauren Johnston–spoke this morning of widespread flooding. Berryhill is almost always cheery. He was not so this morning.
“It’s entirely possible that we’ve had the most significant effects from a storm in our history in Palm Coast,” Berryhill said. “It’s definitely the most significant effects we’ve had since Irma. We have major roads that are impassable due to water right now, including Seminole Woods, Old Kings Road, parts of Belle Terre, U.S. 1 in the county, not in the city.” Also, Florida Park Drive.
The State Road 100 overpass from U.S. 1 was closed.
With the majority of the county without power, “that creates a public health issue, especially in our pep areas,” Berryhill said, referring to pep tanks, the sewer systems attached to homes in Palm Coast’s core areas. “We urge, our residents to be conservative with their water usage.” He said he saw a report of 15 inches having already dropped on the city, with more to come. “That that’s huge taxation on our wastewater plant. We also have, because of power, we’ve got some limitations to our ability to make potable water, so we’re running at about 50 percent capacity right now.”
City crews conducted one rescue from a home overnight. The fire chief said there have been reports of in-house flooding–the first time that has happened in the city’s history–but those reports are not specific to a single neighborhood.
“We’ve been running 911 calls all [night],” Berryhill said. “We definitely suffered some challenges due to the fact that there was some issues with the county EOC overnight, but in Palm Coast, we have some backup things in place, and we were able to continue dispatching emergency crews by working with sheriff’s office dispatch and our other partners.” The issues at EOC were the power loss.
“We did have some significant issues overnight but it was all technology because the county’s generators did not work,” Sheriff Rick Staly said this morning, which caused the county’s computer -assisted dispatching system known as CAD to go down. “so we have to use our backup 911 center at the jail administration building. Then our phone calls were transferred to St. Johns County Sheriff’s office for them to relay them to us,” while the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office handled Flagler’s text-to-911 system.
There were nine calls to 911 overnight.
“Our backup systems worked, it just added another layer of challenges to us. But our processes worked,” the sheriff said. “So to our knowledge we didn’t miss anything.”
This morning the sheriff was out with deputies, clearing roads–deputies are equipped with chainsaws–and, in one case, stopping two drivers who were “racing” each other toward the ocean to do sightseeing.
“We’re out there, everybody is busy so everybody pitches in together,” Staly said, describing extensive damage: many downed trees, “a lot of flooding,” and a lot of downed power lines.
“Our roads are light, people are I think staying home and we appreciate that, but then we have the knuckleheads like the two I just pulled over,” Staly said. “They were like racing each other, they didn’t know each other so it was like road rage, all because they wanted to go see the ocean, and we don’t need that. They’re going to find themselves in a predicament where we have to come rescue them,” with trees and power lines in the way.
Staly said the waters of Crescent Lake, which he saw, were some 200 feet past its banks, and since it is part of the same system as Dead Lake, the same was happening there. Both areas were part of the county’s evacuation zones. “Dead Lake and Crescent Lake will continue to rise for probably another four or five days from the St. Johns river so we’re nowhere near done with the flooding on the west side,” the sheriff said.
“City Hall roof is peeling off,” Flagler Beach Commissioner Rick Belhumeur said just after 4 a.m. “It’s going to be ugly out there at daybreak.” Emergency officials were reporting sustained winds of more than 39 miles per hour overnight, especially on the barrier island, causing emergency responders to halt responses.
Winds were still very strong this morning on the barrier island. “It’s quite an endeavor to walk in this wind out here, it’s hard to stand,” Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley said after a survey of the city between 23rd Street and near city hall, where his law office is located. “It’s got to be, I would guess, 60 mile an hour winds right now.” His own weather station at his house on South 23rd, which is downslope from A1A, was registering 55 mph.
“Fortunately, I saw no structural damage on the houses that I passed on my slow trek to my office, I saw no evidence of any flood flooding,” Spradley said. “I knew that was the case because when I left my house, I looked out back and the canal is still within its banks, but much tree debris and many signs, including such things as stop signs are broken snapped and are laying either on the street or in the right of way.” He described A1A as entirely covered in sand. “It looks like a fresh snowfall.”
Belhumeur put it this way: “Driving on. A1A is like driving on the beach. Sand is 4-6 inches deep along the entire renourishment project. Pier is still here.” The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had just completed the renourishment of 3.2 miles of beach from just north of the pier to the area of the water tower in south Flagler Beach, dumping 1.2 million cubic yards of dredged sands on the stretch. A lot of that has eroded.
There were no curfew-related arrests last night. If the majority of residents in Flagler County are still without power later today, Staly said he will recommend to the county’s policy group that the curfew be in place again tonight. The policy group assembles all the local government agencies’ executives, the emergency management director and the sheriff.
The National Weather Service had warned of a potential storm surge of 3 to 5 feet in Flagler County, on the Atlantic coast and along the Intracoastal, whose tides are 12 hours apart. High tide on the Intracoastal was at 6 a.m. “So far so good,” Belhumeur, who lives on South Flagler Avenue, within a few feet of the Intracoastal, said. “The next two of three high tides still have me concerned. Surges typically come after the storm.”
In Bunnell, city officials were reporting flooding in “many streets, both State roadways and local roadways, in the core area of the City,” and many being closed. “Emergency Management and Emergency Responders already have their hands full. Do not add to the work they are already doing for all residents in the City and County,” a Bunnell advisory asked. “Stay in place. Stay safe. Do not try to explore the effects of Hurricane Milton.”
Palm Coast and county officials were issuing the same message.
The storm made landfall at 8:30 near Siesta Key, just south of Tampa, last night, and was about 10 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral by 5 this morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. Flagler County is still under hurricane warning.
Canal levels in Palm Coast rose significantly, exceeding in some cases their high-water mark, as with the canal along Royal Palms Parkway, which rose to 24.5 feet around 4 and 5 a.m., from 19 feet before the storm, when the city had lowered canal levels. A stormwater pond at Flagler Palm Coast High School saw water levels rise from 22.5 feet Wednesday at 6 a.m. to 25 feet at 6 this morning, with 7 inches of rain at that location between Wednesday and the early hours of Thursday. There is more rain to come.
Flagler County’s curfew was lifted at 7 a.m. but authorities were urging residents to remain sheltered as morning flooding rain was to continue in St. Johns, Flagler, Putnam and Marion Counties, as were some wind threats. Authorities are expecting a significant amount of downed power lines–as indicated by power cuts– and downed trees.
“Although the curfew is lifted, if you want to be a good neighbor, and I believe our residents do, and you’re able to stay in your home, that’s what you should do,” Berryhill said. “If something was to happen to you while you were out doing whatever there is to do, which there’s not much to do today, you would be a distraction for our crews because of a choice you made, rather than the people who didn’t choose anything bad, but truly need us, right? So I’m begging residents to stay in their homes if safe. If they have to evacuate, that’s different. And to be incredibly cautious if that’s the case, and to do everything they can to conserve water, that’s that’s how you are a good neighbor. Wander into standing water? They should be weary of lines down. They should assume that it’s a live power line, and they should just do their best to to conserve those resources and protect their neighbors by allowing responders to respond where they have to respond.”
Hurricane Milton’s destructive path was significant just south of the I-4 corridor, spawning off at least 116 tornado warning, destroying the roof of the stadium where the Tampa Bay Rays play, and sending a storm surge through neighborhoods after making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane.
