Hurricane Idalia has cut off access to a popular beach island on Florida’s Gulf Coast

Jason Dill
·2 min read
24

UPDATE: Access to Anna Maria Island was reestablished Wednesday afternoon.

ORIGINAL:

Anna Maria Island was cut off from Bradenton with the Cortez and Manatee Avenue bridges closed due to several flooded roads.

“We have extreme flooding on all our roadways,” Police Chief Bill Tokejar of Holmes Beach said. “The roads aren’t passable and no bridges open to Anna Maria Island.”

It won’t be possible to assess damage until the flooding recedes, Tokejar said.

READ MORE: Hurricane Idalia’s flood and storm surge in Florida were caught on video. Take a look

In the city of Bradenton, Mayor Gene Brown and city administrator Rob Perry were evaluating flooding along the city’s riverfront.

At 9:49 a.m., street flooding had reached three or four houses deep from the Manatee River, and waters were expected to rise even more with the high tide coming at 12:30 p.m., Brown said.

“Some houses along the waterway will be in danger of flooding,” Brown said.

Waters could rise another foot or two, he said.

“We are trying to blast out to everyone stay out of the water. We dodged the windstorm, but not the flooding,” Brown said.

Bill Logan, Manatee County’s information manager, said county crews were assessing damage on Wednesday, with an eye toward reopening country buildings on Thursday.

Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, which closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday, reopened at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

“We didn’t have a lick of damage,” Rick Piccolo, the airport’s president and CEO, said.

Bradenton Herald staff writer James A. Jones Jr. and Miami Herald staff writer Omar Rodríguez Ortiz contributed to this report.