- December 9, 2024
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Aside from some downed tree limbs and one small washout on State Road A1A, Flagler Beach and Flagler County made it through Hurricane Idalia largely unscathed.
The washout occurred Wednesday morning on the shoulder of A1A near South 28th Street, next to a dune walkover. Florida Department of Transportation Public Information Director Cindi Lane said FDOT’s engineers, with contractor Louis Berger, repaired the washout within a few hours.
Since Hurricanes Ian and Nicole last fall, S.R. A1A has been particularly vulnerable, she said.
“We’re doing everything we can to protect this corridor,” Lane said. “It’s vulnerable, so we’re keeping a close eye on it.”
FDOT teams were on site in Flagler Beach since early Wednesday morning, Lane said, and patrolled the corridor every 30 minutes.
But beyond wind debris and a bit of standing water in swales and the pier’s beachside parking lots, Flagler’s coast looked much as it did before Idalia. The county has not received reports of flooding, according to Flagler County Communications Coordinator Julie Murphy.
The Flagler Beach Police Department posted on its Facebook page that the pier is intact, and most of the city's flood-prone areas had minimal standing water by 4:30 p.m.
At the beach itself, surfers caught post-hurricane waves while some residents waded into the choppy waters or walked along the boardwalk, admiring the view.
On the north side of the county’s shoreline, the newly restored dunes and beaches at Varn Park and near Mala Compra Park appeared smooth and undamaged.
Many area restaurants were closed Wednesday afternoon.
Crews along S.R. A1A trimmed trees near the Flagler Technical College, but most of the visible debris was palm fronds and leaves.
Palm Coast had no reports of flooding, according to Brittany Kershaw, the city's Communications and Marketing director. A total of about 2,500 people in Flagler County lost power, she said, but FPL resolved those outages within an hour. The city had reports of two downed trees.
Hurricane Idalia has been downgraded to a tropical storm again and is making its way through Georgia as of the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 30.