As Nassau County assesses and cleans up after Hurricane Ian, the community is feeling thankful that Ian chose to head out to the Atlantic instead of hovering over it's communities as was the experience for so many fellow Floridians in other parts of the state.
At the time of this post, Savannah, Ga. is preparing for the storm surge and Myrtle Beach is under a hurricane watch. Ian will move inland and, as it interacts with land, should quickly decay.
"The monster storm has taken a few lives and homes were ripped off their foundation in Ft Myers. The Sanibel causeway is impassable. Massive rescue efforts are underway," said a report from ABC NewsLive. "2 million people are without power and it will take weeks, even months, to clean up. In Orlando, the broad scope that needs to be searched and the amount of rescue needed is still being evaluated," continued the report.
"As of 8:30 a.m., the evacuation order for Nassau County has been lifted. While the order has been lifted, there may be conditions specific to your area that may prevent you from going home," said a recent release from the City of Fernandina Beach.
View the full release by clicking on this link: https://www.onenassau.com/evacuation-status/
Beginning Monday, Nassau County Emergency Management began sending regular news releases to the community in order to prepare for the upcoming storm.
The Fernandina Beach Police Department began preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Ian on Monday. By Wednesday, all full time employees were recalled to the Police Department.
"That means they understood the fact that they were eating and sleeping on cots at the police department until the storm passed and our community was safe," said Jeff Tambasco, Deputy Police Chief, Fernandina Beach Police Department.
The police Department Operations Center worked in collaboration with the Fernandina Beach Fire Department and the Nassau County Emergency Management to ensure all assets and critical structures were secured. Patrol squads were doubled to ensure that adequate emergency resources were readily available .
"Before, during and after the storm, police department personnel worked to make sure our community was safe," continued Tambasco. We will now conduct a comprehensive review of our procedures to identify areas in which we could have improved."
By Tuesday morning, County and City Commissioners officially declared a local state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Ian's arrival. Nassau County School District decided to extend school closures to Wednesday. Schools remained closed on Thursday and Friday, as well. No after school activities on any of those days.
"Despite the lack of recent storms, many of the City's staff has served long enough to have previous storm experience. That experience allowed staff to prepare and also train many of the newer, inexperienced staff," said Fernandina Beach City Manager, Dale Martin.
"City staff conducted pre-storm inspections of facilities, including the Marina and the beaches. Personnel were assigned to the County's Emergency Operations Center. Rosters were adjusted to account for round-the-clock operations. Then, as with most storms, we simply waited like other residents," continued Martin.
As the storm approached, Public Works, Police, and Fire personnel continued preparations- constructing temporary dunes at Main Beach, pre-positioning barriers at areas know for flooding, procuring supplies.
Wednesday arrived with a slight change in the course of Hurricane Ian and many businesses and local activities began closing and postponing activities.
On Thursday morning, the community was alerted that Ian had been downgraded to a category 1 hurricane. The morning hours were darker than usual as the sun had difficulty peeking through the heavy clouds. It rained steadily and wind gusts were strong. The NOAA hurricane cone showed Ian swerving out into the Atlantic but would head back to land north of Nassau County by many miles.
In an interview with Fox Weather on the impact of Hurricane Ian, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said, " We're comparing this to Irma, but a little bit worse. We're having a lot of flooding issues here, certainly not what they're having down in southwest Florida. Our heats certainly go out to them."
"We had to evacuate a couple of our zones here. We have had some water rescues, downed power lines and trees over the road, but we're doing better compared to other areas of Florida," continued Leeper. "We had a nor'easter come first that put a lot of rain in our area and some winds and here comes tropical force Ian as well. We're expecting a storm surge 4-6 feet that will push that ocean into the rivers and creeks, and the tributaries will flood the low-lying areas of our county which will strand a lot of our residents. We got a high tide tonight around midnight and we hope to get through that, then we will assess the damage sometime tomorrow."
By Friday morning, the rain and winds had subsided. City and County officials were out assessing damages and FPL was seen actively assisting in the community.
"The storm itself did not pack the full fury of wind, waves, and rain originally expected as the storm passed out to sea to the east. Nonetheless, a few trees fell, some power was lost, and the riverfront, Egans Creek, and some streets flooded. With the storm effects coming from the north, part of the Marina was battered, breaking a wooden walkway and dislodging a steel gangway. The damaged gangway disrupted electric, fuel, and pumpout services. The new docks, however, performed admirably, holding solid and stable during high waves and winds, continued Martin. "Most concerns were related to the interaction of the storm and high tides (approximately noon and midnight each day). The higher day tides flooded much of Front Street (as expected), but the water easily receded with the tides. The beaches were relatively unscathed by the tides and storm. Most importantly, no injuries or deaths were reported, nor significant property damaged/lost."
"I want to thank our employees for sacrificing time protecting their own family and coming in to work to protect our community," said Tambasco.
"Many thanks to the City staff tasked with maintaining key operations during all conditions of the storm: day, night, wind, rain, floods, flying/falling debris. The men and women working in Public Works (Streets, Facilities, Fleet, Sanitation, Water, Wastewater, Stormwater), Police, and Fire made managing the emergency simple," said Martin. "Special thanks also to Mr. Charles George and Ms. Mary Hamburg. This is an exceptional staff to lead and community to serve. We'll review new experiences and make ours better prepared to respond and recover for the next storm. I hope you all fared safely and well."
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