Volusia County Sheriff, officials urge people to stay put during Hurricane Ian
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood called out residents who are “driving around, taking selfies” during Tropical Storm Ian and urged them to get off the roads.
“What they are doing is they are pushing that water into people’s homes,” he said. “People that are on the brink of flooding or not flooding.”
Volusia County Manager George Recktenwald extended the county curfew until 7 a.m. on Friday.
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The call comes after beach communities countywide face “unprecedented” levels of rainfall, according to Emergency Management Director Jim Judge, and law enforcement and first responders try to deal with an overload of calls and residents trying to get out in the storm.
Community Information Director Kevin Captain said the rainfall situation is “beyond dangerous” and “poses an immediate threat to anyone who steps outside.”
Captain said Florida Power & Light is reporting 48,000 homes without power as of 5 a.m. Thursday, while Duke Energy is reporting around 22,000 as of 7 a.m.
Captain said more than 300 residents sought shelters in the county yesterday. He and Judge urged residents to stay put until officials say it is safe to go outside.
“We cannot emphasize enough how serious this is,” Judge said during at the press conference. “We are going to continue to see sustained, strong, tropical-storm-force winds for the next six hours or so. And even after we get past that stage, we are going to continue to have tropical storm gusts all night tonight.”
Judge said the county hopefully expects that “things will start to clear out tomorrow morning.”
“We’re still going to have a great deal of rain all through the day Sunday,” he added.
Several roads are flooded, the St. John’s river is in “major flood stage,” and pine trees are “bent halfway over.”
“Do not get out on the highways,” Judge said.
Chitwood said that first responders are around 100 calls behind – most of which involve flooding incidents.
“While we have done a really good job navigating this storm, at around 4:35 a.m. this morning, I think Volusia County (took on) as much water as it can take,” Chitwood said. “As a result of that, we are seeing historic flooding.”
Captain said that residents can expect more response volume from county officials as road conditions improve Thursday afternoon and into the night.
Captain said residents can keep updated by visiting volusia.org/pin, or call the Citizens’ Information Center at 866-345-0345.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Hurricane Ian brings 'unprecedented' flooding to Volusia County
