Hurricane Debbie was more like Little Debbie for locals. It has left Nassau County very wet, but mostly safe.
Across the rest of Florida and into Georgia and South Carolina, thousands have been left without power, hundreds needed rescuing from flood waters, and five people have lost their lives as a result of the storm.
At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, poweroutages.com said that 109,477 electric customers were without power in Florida. In Georgia, 17,970 were without power, and in South Carolina, 17,625 were without power.
According to the Florida Power and Light website, a few dozen people were still without power in Nassau County as of Tuesday morning. Florida Public Utilities’ website said only one customer in Nassau County was without power as of Tuesday morning.
The city of Fernandina Beach fared well during Hurricane Debby, with only four trees down and city services up and running by Tuesday.
According to interim City Manager Jeremiah Glisson, the city received only minimal damage.
An emergency shelter was set up at the Martin Luther King Rec Center on Monday and remained open Tuesday. City Hall was closed Monday, but reopened on Tuesday.
“We are still assessing damage, but as of this morning we have a total of four downed trees,” Glisson said Tuesday morning. “We have moderate debris fallout and there has been no significant flooding.”
The Port of Fernandina also fared well, with no significant damage.
Ocean Highway and Port Authority Administrative Office Manager Rossana Hebron said the port followed U.S. Coast Guard protocol during Hurricane Debby. She said the port was on “X-ray” status Saturday, which according to the Coast Guard, means weather advisories indicate sustained gale force winds (39–54 mph/34–47 knots) from a tropical or hurricane force storm are predicted to make landfall at the port within 48 hours.
Sunday, the USCG placed the port under condition Yankee, when sustained gale force winds are expected within 24 hours, vessel movement is restricted and all movements must be approved by the captain of the port.
At midnight Sunday, the USCG condition was Zulu, meaning weather advisories indicate that sustained gale-force winds from a tropical or hurricane-force storm are predicted to make landfall at the port within 12 hours. The port closed at midnight Sunday.
"The Port of Fernandina has not experienced any significant rain or flooding,” Jeff Hymas, spokesperson for Savage, parent company of port operator Nassau Marine Terminal, told the News-Leader. “However, Nassau Marine Terminal closed operations at the port on Tuesday morning out of caution, in the interest of our team’s safety. We plan to be back in operation again on Wednesday.”
Hymas said no ships had to be rescheduled due to the storm, and that there was a small number of staff at the port to monitor the storm, and the port would be fully staffed Wednesday.
As Tropical Storm Debby continues to move across the southeast coast, the county is expecting more rain.
Nassau County is just one of the many Florida counties that declared a local State of Emergency over the weekend in response to the incoming Tropical Storm Debby. As the week began, local leaders were concerned about potential record-breaking rainfall that could cause serious flooding issues for Nassau County residents.
On Monday, local government offices, Nassau County School District, and other local businesses and organizations closed for the day. The BOCC announced administration offices would be closed again on Tuesday in order to allow county staff to work on storm management and response. The school district also delayed the start of all schools and offices until 9 a.m. on Tuesday and canceled extracurricular activities.
On Monday morning, the Board of County Commissioners held an emergency 9 a.m. meeting to ratify and affirm the executive order that was issued by County Manager Taco Pope on Sunday.
“In the event that there is an incident or event that decorates the necessity of a local state of emergency, your plan allows for Emergency Management Director and the Executive Policy group which is a defined group of individuals in the community which includes, myself representing the municipalities as well as your constitutional officers and the school district to recommend a local state of emergency be enacted,” Pope said the emergency meeting. “The requirement is that as soon as it’s safely possible, that state of emergency issued by the county manager be brought before the Board of County Commissioners for ratification.”
Director of Emergency Management (EM), Tim Cooper was in attendance at the 9 a.m. emergency meeting to give an update on the storm and EM’s efforts that began last week and will most likely proceed the rest of the week.
Cooper said Emergency Management has been tracking the storm closely since last week and began to make plans last Thursday.
“We had to step into a more forward-leaning posture last Thursday. I called the first coordination meeting amongst the community that we have to make plans when this kind of stuff happens such as the school board, the sheriff’s office, the fire department so we did that last Thursday. Friday we stayed in contact, in touch, I’ve been on all the state calls, all the weather calls, multiple times a day since then, and then yesterday (Sunday) with the storm track and the forecast we were getting … the concern of the storm stalling could bring record-setting rains.”
As of the Monday morning meeting, Cooper said they were expecting the storm to stall north of Nassau County.
“We can hope for a lot of things but we’ve got to plan for the worst,” Cooper said.
Also on Monday, Sheriff Bill Leeper took to social media to update the community on the impacts of the storm. In one of the videos, he stood in front of the St. Mary’s River which was continuously rising.
“We expect some flooding is gonna take place, so if your property has flooded in the past, more than likely it will now,” Leeper said. He also said there had been a few crashes so far and that drivers should be cautious. If the street lights are out, use it as a four-way stop.
In another video, he stood on the beach at Peters Point to warn locals to stay out of the water.
“Stay safe, Nassau,” he said at the end of both videos.
Hurricane Debby made landfall around 7 a.m. Monday near Steinhatchee, Fla., with winds reaching 80mph. As it moved over land, the storm weakened back to Tropical Storm status.
achandler@fbnewsleader.com