- April 17, 2024
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The city has cleared more than 600 truck loads of storm debris. (Photo by Brian McMillan)
The mountains of debris from Hurricane Matthew are being whisked away, beaches are reopening, and FEMA has made the declarations required to help local residents rebuild.
Here’s a look at how Flagler County is faring after the storm.
City crews are still picking up storm debris in neighborhoods, making multiple passes to make sure they get everything.
“A total of a little over 600 truck loads have already been picked up,” City Manager Jim Landon said at an Oct. 18 City Council meeting. “It represents over 23,000 cubic yards of just yard debris. … And we’re not even halfway through with our first round. It is a huge task.”
The city has asked residents to separate trash into three categories: vegetative debris (which will be mulched); non-vegetative construction debris, such as loose roofing shingles; and bagged yard debris and regular garbage.
Meanwhile, city crews have also been checking trees around parks, trails and sidewalks to make sure that there aren’t damaged limbs that could fall on people.
“Kids walk and ride their bicycle from their homes to school. We put a priority on all those routes making sure the sidewalks are cleared off,” Landon said. “This weekend, it was great weather. Mom out there with the stroller at the park there at the community center — those big oak trees — we made sure they were safe … so we didn’t have one of those limbs tumbling down.”
City staff have estimated that more than 1,000 “hazardous trees” will need to be deadlt with because they’re unsafe, Landon said. In some cases, Landon said, city staff will have to cut down potentially dangerous trees on private property without the standard notice, “so we’re not waiting for the next wind gust.” In those cases, the city is waiving the standard $100 administrative fee, but passing the contractor's bill to the property owner.
The city has communicated with FPL to make sure areas that have PEP tanks — wastewater treatment tanks that rely on an electric pump to push water out of the tank and on to city treatment facilities — are prioritized during extended power outages, so the PEP tanks don’t overflow or back up into people’s bathtubs, Landon said.
“They have critical facilities that they prioritize,” Landon said. “One of the post-event efforts we’re going to make is that our PEP tank areas are included in their priorities.”
Three Flagler County school campuses — Bunnell Elementary, Rymfire Elementary and Buddy Taylor Middle — were used as shelters during the storm, and another, Flagler Palm Coast High School, was used to house National Guard soldiers after the storm.
Superintendent Jacob Oliva said that as the storm had approached on Wednesday, Oct. 5, he didn’t really think it was going to hit.
“I kept thinking to myself, ‘We’re not going open a shelter; it’s not going to hit. We’re Flagler County; we’re resilient.’ But as the day started to progress, my attitude started changing.”
Then Oliva and school district staff thought they might have to shelter a small number of people — 20, 30, maybe 40. But the list of evacuation areas began growing, and, when the district opened its shelter at Bunnell Elementary at 6 a.m., school staff arrived to find a line of people waiting to be let in.
Altogether, the schools housed about 1,900 people — about 700 each at Bunnell Elementary and Buddy Taylor Middle, plus about 500 at Rymfire Elementary — and about 250 pets.
Before school resumed on Wednesday, Oct. 11, school staff arrived at classrooms to find handwritten notes of thanks left behind by people who’d stayed there during the storm.
“Our message was clear that we knew folks didn’t want to be there ... but if they were going to come into our schools, they were going to get a first-class experience," Oliva said. "We set that bar high, and we exceeded those expectations.”
But the schools sustained some damage from the storm — “probably well over a million dollars worth,” Oliva said — much of it water-related.
“When we were able to enter our buildings, we found a lot of water intrusion,” he said. The roof at Matanzas High School, over the auditorium, was damaged, bleachers were torn up and doors were knocked down at various schools, and the press box at the Flagler Palm Coast High School stadium “took a bit of a hit,” Oliva said.
“We had debris everywhere,” Oliva said. There was also damage to about 25 of the district’s school buses, forcing the district to have parts overnighted so the buses could be fixed.
The school district, forced to add four days back into the school schedule to make up for the four days school was closed because of hurricane Matthew, approved an amended school calendar Oct. 18.
Two of the four makeup days will fall on the first two days of Thanksgiving week: Monday, Nov. 21, and Tuesday, Nov. 22. Another will fall on the last Friday before spring break: Friday, March 10. The last will be April 14, which had initially been scheduled as a teacher workday.
Staff and volunteers served:
over 10,000 meals
over 10,000 cups of coffee
1,500 chicken sandwhiches
3,000 slices of pizza
5,000 cookies
Over 1,000 burgers.
Beach access in Flagler Beach was reopened after about 170 volunteers spent Sunday, Oct. 16 cleaning up Flagler Beach’s beach, and tests of the water came back clean.
“We’ve worked extremely hard to open a portion of the beach to the public,” City Manager Larry Newsom said in a Flagler Beach city government news release. “Our goal is to keep moving forward with the restoration process.”
The beach from Fourth Street North to Ninth Street South, along with the boardwalk, reopened to walkers, swimmers and surfers at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19.
The Pier Bait Shop and bathrooms also reopened, along with the dune walkovers at Second Street North, Third Street North and Fourth Street North, and the walkovers at Second Street South, Third Street South, Fifth Street South and Eight Street South.
Caution signs were placed warning swimmers and surfers of possible storm debris, and the beatches north of Fourth Street North and south of Ninth Street South remained closed, as did the pier and the damaged disabled access ramp at Second Street South.
The FEMA declaration many Flagler County residents and business owners were awaiting after the storm — the amendment of the Major Disaster Declaration to include individual assistance — was issued Monday, Oct. 17.
“This is great news,” Flagler County Commission Chairwoman Barbara Revels said in a county news release. “This will help those who don’t have the means to get back on their feet after sustaining damage from the storm.”
The FEMA Individuals and Households Program provides up to $33,000 for housing and other needs, including personal property
FEMA’s program is called the Individuals and Households Program (IHP). It provides up to $33,000 to be used for both housing assistance — such as rent money for temporary housing, or repairs for damage not covered by insurance — and other needs for uninsured expenses including replacement clothes and furniture, moving and storage costs, fuel, vehicle damage, or medical or dental expenses.
For details, go to https://www.fema.gov/recovery-directorate/assistance-individuals-and-households
