Gainesville Mayor Poe says Alachua County 'fortunate' after Ian slams southwest Florida

As Hurricane Ian wrecked southern Florida, Alachua County was mostly spared.

Ian hit southwest Florida Wednesday afternoon as a major Category 4 storm, causing a massive storm surge and flooding, while Alachua County only had to endure some rain, wind and brief power outages.

“We are fortunate that we avoided the worst of this storm and are thankful for our essential workers who were prepared and ready to respond to our neighbors’ needs,” Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe said. “We now need to find ways to support our neighbors elsewhere who are waking up to massive devastation and displacement.”

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After the storm’s path shifted east, the county reported Thursday morning that it was deactivating shelters and no longer accepting new shelter residents. About 70 people utilized the shelters, Poe said.

The Alachua County school district, University of Florida and Santa Fe College were closed Wednesday through Friday due to the threat posed by the hurricane.

All academic and student-related activities were also canceled through Friday. Schools are expected to resume normal schedules on Monday.

The Florida Gators football game on Saturday against Eastern Washington has been rescheduled for Sunday at noon.

Public Works and GRU

The county also lifted a flood watch, now expecting less than 1 inch of rain.

Alachua County Public Works Director Ramon Gavarrete told The Sun Wednesday that he was primarily concerned about flooding and downed trees as a result of the storm.

“We got spared, big time,” he said. “We are getting some trees down, but, quite frankly, it’s not more than a bad afternoon storm.”

But the Gainesville area still felt impacts from high winds. Gainesville Regional Utilities reported that at least 6,600 people were without power early Thursday morning. All power was restored by Friday morning.

“(GRU crews are) responding to outages and restoring as quickly and safely as possible,” GRU spokesman David Warm said.

The outages mostly impacted southwestern neighborhoods near Interstate 75 and Archer Road.

GRU sent 12 workers to help restore power in Bartow after power was fully restored in Gainesville. The group included 10 lineworkers, one safety officer and a mechanic. GRU also sent three employees from its electrical engineering department to assist with damage assessment in Lakeland.

Likewise, Gainesville Fire Rescue had seven members go to Port Charlotte to help with search and rescue efforts, the mayor announced on Twitter.

The municipal utility serves approximately 93,000 customers across Alachua County. During Hurricane Irma, GRU restored power to roughly 53,000 customers within 48 hours.

As of Thursday morning, the county was experiencing sustained winds of up to 20 to 30 mph, with tropical storm wind gusts of 45 to 55 mph.

The city of Gainesville distributed sand and bags at two locations, its Public Works administration building and Citizens Field, to help residents prevent flooding. Roughly 32,000 bags had been distributed by Wednesday afternoon.

Alachua County and the city of Gainesville's garbage and recycling pick-up services will resume Friday for those who normally have Thursday pick-ups. Regular pick-up schedules will resume Monday.

Gavarrete said the county still had road crews responding Thursday morning to downed trees as gusts of wind continued to move through the area, but that they would only be pushing debris to the sides of the roads.

“Most of my crews have basically been awake all night so we are just pushing them out of the way and we’ll pick them up next week,” he said. "The great news is that we had very minimal rain from the system."

Different story in south Florida

Residents in southwest Florida were not as fortunate.

Ian made landfall around 3:00 p.m. Wednesday near Cayo Costa, according to the National Hurricane Center. It blasted the area with sustained winds of 150 mph, creating massive storm surge and severe flooding.

In Naples, multiple parking garages along the coastline were flooded with water over vehicle roofs, according to the Collier County Sheriff's Office.

Residents in the area were subject to mandatory curfews and had to boil their water because of the storm's impact.

During a Thursday morning press briefing, Gov. Ron DeSantis said that over 2 million people were without power in the areas hit hardest.

"Lee and Charlotte (counties) are basically off the grid at this point," he said, adding that reconnections in the area will likely involve rebuilding infrastructure. "Crews ... are on their way down right now, but that's going to be more than just connecting a power line back to a pole."

Rain, flooding in Northeast Florida

On Florida's east coast, beach communities in Volusia County faced “unprecedented” levels of rainfall, according to the county’s emergency management director, Jim Judge. Law enforcement and first responders were overloaded with calls from residents trying to get out of the storm, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

Volusia County spokesman Kevin Captain said the rainfall situation was “beyond dangerous” and “poses an immediate threat to anyone who steps outside.”

Further north, flooding in St. Augustine’s historic district occurred after water spilled over the seawall and onto A1A, according to the Jacksonville Times-Union. The Bridge of Lions was closed late Thursday morning.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Hurricane Ian clobbers southwest Florida, grazes Alachua County