'In a death trap': Small town of Mayo digging out after Idalia buries it in debris
MAYO — Tori Lyons will never forget the look of worry on her father’s face as Hurricane Idalia knocked live oaks onto their house and peeled tin roofs off the shelters on their pig farm in rural Lafayette County.
She and her mom and dad, Ricky and Louisa Lyons, and her brother, Chad Lyons, rode the storm out on their 100-acre farm on NW County Road 251, home of their family business, Lyons Show Pigs.
As she and her family huddled together in the main house, they could see through a bay window only some of the destruction unfold and heard telltale sounds of what locals believe were tornadoes. They had no idea of what kind of damage their house, their farm or their livestock would take.
“You can just imagine the fear,” Lyons said. “We were in a death trap. We were surrounded by trees. We couldn’t leave. We never imagined that it would be as bad as what it was.”
After a harrowing two hours, the worst of Idalia passed, allowing the Lyons to begin counting their losses — and their blessings. The storm badly damaged or destroyed pens and shelters and ripped apart their biggest and fanciest show barn. But it spared all of their livestock, including 50 pigs that were in the show barn when Idalia leveled it.
“When I saw the destruction, I was like there’s no way all of the pigs survived,” said Lyons, who along with her brother teaches agriculture at Lafayette High School. “And after we got out and started counting pigs — to see that they had all made it, that was a true blessing.”
Idalia made landfall Aug. 30 near Keaton Beach, less than 50 miles away from the Lyons’ farm. It brought outsized damage to Lafayette County, Florida’s second-smallest county with a population of 8,300, burying it in downed trees and debris and leaving residents without power for a week and counting.
Lisa Walker, a Lafayette County commissioner, said the county lost countless trees and a handful of houses, leaving between six to 10 people homeless. The sheer amount of fallen timber left numerous roads and driveways impassable.
“The tree debris was unreal,” said Walker, who lives on County Road 400, one of the main roads in town. “We don’t know if a tornado came through — we’re guessing — but it took those trees down and covered that main road and just wrapped up lines around.”
She said Lafayette County, a farming community with only one red light, two schools and a state prison, largely fended for itself in the immediate aftermath of Idalia. Residents with tractors and chainsaws and businesses with bulldozers and skidders cleared pathways street by street and house by house.
“Every neighbor got on their tractor the next morning,” Walker said. “Since the storm quit, somebody’s been in somebody’s driveway. And thank God, because if it hadn’t been for the neighbors, we’d still be in a lot bigger mess.”
Slow pace of electric repairs test community's patience
On Tuesday, the same day Gov. Ron DeSantis declared that 96% of all electric customers who lost power during Idalia had been restored, local officials said roughly half the county was still offline.
John Scott, who heads up Emergency Management in Brevard County but was in Mayo helping with the local recovery, said electric repair crews were having an especially difficult time restoring power to more wooded and remote parts of the county.
“We have such a large number of trees on the lines, and because they are large, mature trees, it’s more of a complicated repair, complicated access. So it’s just making everything slower.”
Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative, which serves about 3,500 customers in the county, reported Wednesday that roughly a quarter of its customers were still without power. Duke Energy, which serves the town of Mayo, said virtually all of its 855 customers were back online. By Thursday morning, the state was reporting that about 7% of customers were still in the dark.
Danielle Schroeder, a teacher who lives in Mayo, and her family of five was still waiting Tuesday for crews to restore power to their house, which also suffered damage in the hurricane.
She said they were luckier than others — they had a generator to power their fridge and a small air-conditioner that relatives brought after the storm. But they were spending $50 each day on fuel — more than a monthly light bill — to keep the generator running.
“There are people way worse off right now,” she said. “They’re in really bad situations. And just because of the storms we’ve gone through in the past, we were a little more prepared. But even if you have a generator, it’s still difficult.”
Schools reopen amid outages, cleanup and teacher concerns
On Wednesday, DeSantis, who’s coordinating storm response at the same time he’s running for president, announced that all schools districts in Idalia’s path would reopen on Thursday.
“Florida’s preparation and immediate recovery efforts have enabled all school districts to be back open just one week after a major hurricane,” the governor said in a news release. “Thank you to the superintendents, principals, and teachers who put students first by reopening quickly and safely.”
However, some teachers and staff in Lafayette County questioned the decision by the state. Teachers began reporting back to work Wednesday, a day before students were to return. In Mayo, they spent the day raking and cleaning up.
“These kids have not had a bath,” said Walker, a 40-year classroom veteran who teaches kindergarten. “These kids have not been fed. These kids are hot — they’re not sleeping at night. We all wanted to wait until Monday, because ... parents’ nerves are shot.”
As their endurance was tested, teachers, parents and students kept helping. At the Lyons’ farm, Future Farmers of America chapters from across the state came to assist with cleanup, along with customers, friends “and strangers who are now friends,” Lyons said.
“They poured their love out and donated time and resources and everything the past few days,” she said.
'You help each other out as best you can'
At the Lafayette County Community Center, a steady flow of residents stopped by to talk with FEMA officials and fill out paperwork. Across the street, out-of-town food trucks working with the nonprofit World Central Kitchen gave Schroeder and storm-rattled residents free hot meals, including steak and smothered chicken.
“They deserve to have some good comfort food in their stomach,” said Michelle Rioux, owner of Food Junkies of Miami.
Main Street in Mayo showed signs of life Tuesday, with Cricket’s Deli, a local favorite, back in business. A nearby storefront window had “Thank you linemen” written in big letters. A sign outside the bank cautioned that a curfew remained in effect “from sunset to sunrise.”
On the northwest side of town, Jeremy Driver, an out-of-work carpenter who resides near the small town of Day, stopped by a friend’s house to help move fallen trees off his land to a nearby field.
“This is kind of what everybody does anyway,” he said. “You help each other out as best you can.”
How to help
Donate to the Red Cross by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767) or texting the word IDALIA to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Sign up to volunteer at www.redcross.org/VolunteerToday.
Help feed those in the strike zone through Second Harvest of the Big Bend at FightingHunger.org/Idalia.
Donate to the United Way of the Big Bend at uwbb.org/disaster-relief-fund or text RELIEF2023 to 41444.
With Tallahassee escaping the brunt of Hurricane Idalia's wrath, this story is part of a continuing series profiling hard-hit communities. Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Mayo, Florida digging out after Hurricane Idalia buries it in debris
