Biden views Idalia damage in Live Oak

LIVE OAK — After surveying the damage — both from the sky and on the ground — in Suwannee County, President Joe Biden said Saturday Hurricane Idalia could have inflicted far worse pain.

“As you just walk around here and look at these few homes, my mother used to have an expression, ‘But for the grace of God,’” Biden said in front of a damaged home on Douglass Street SW across the street from the historic Douglass Center in Live Oak. “Can you imagine, can you imagine this tree falling through your roof in your home?”

Biden and the First Lady, Jill Biden, visited Live Oak on Saturday, meeting with evacuees at a shelter at Suwannee Pineview Elementary School with Sen. Rick Scott before seeing a house on Douglass Street with a tree crashed through it.

Biden’s visit was possibly the first time a sitting President has visited Suwannee County. Eric Musgrove, a Suwannee County historian, said following Hurricane Dora in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson flew over the county while talking to county and city officials.

Around 100 people from across the county lined a fence at the Douglass Center for the historic opportunity to see Biden, getting a chance to meet the President and First Lady after he delivered brief remarks.

Ella Cooper, one of those that met Biden and got a selfie taken with the President, said it was uplifting that he visited.

“It means a lot that he would take the time to come here, to a small community, to see how we’re doing and try to take care of us,” she said.

That sentiment was shared by others who just wanted to see Biden, as well as local officials who had the opportunity to discuss the community’s needs with the nation’s leader.

“It was surprising to me,” Terry Richardson said, noting he had just received power back at his house Friday night. “For him to come here, I’m just in awe, to see the president in our own little small town.”

There are still some in the county without electricity, a week after the storm came through Aug. 30. As of Tuesday night, Suwannee Valley Electric, which serves 28,500 in Suwannee, Columbia, Hamilton and Lafayette counties, had restored power to more than 20,500 members as SVEC workers and contractors were working their way through more than 1,200 broken poles and 350 damaged transformers.

“No winds this strong had hit this area in 100 years,” Biden said, adding he had directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide help to the impacted communities every way that it can. “Pray to God it’ll be another 100 years before this happens again.”

Local officials, though, said their conversations with Biden centered around making sure Live Oak and Suwannee County were better prepared in case another disaster does strike the North Florida community.

“It was probably a once in a, well I hope it was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Live Oak Police Chief Keith Davis, who joined Biden and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on Marine 1 for an aerial tour of the county’s damage. “It was pretty much an honor to have that opportunity to speak face to face with him and express some needs we have in the community.”

Live Oak Mayor Frank Davis and Suwannee County Commission Chairman Franklin White, who were among the local contingent that greeted Biden at the Suwannee County Airport following the aerial tour, both said they also addressed needs in the community.

“I appreciate the fact that they showed up and put a spotlight on the damage and suffering that’s taking place here,” Frank Davis said. “I was glad he brought his wife. I think that made a statement too.

“I’m very appreciative of them coming.”

Both Frank Davis and White also expressed the need for support to the agricultural community. Biden viewed some of that, Keith Davis said, during the flight as they went over some damaged chicken houses in the county.

The county also needs improved infrastructure to weather another storm like Idalia.

When the motorcade arrived on Douglass Street, Frank Davis took advantage to point out the county’s Emergency Operations Center, which sits on the Douglass Center property.

Prior to Idalia’s arrival, the county abandoned the EOC facility, moving its emergency operations to the Suwannee County School Board Administration building, because the current EOC is not safe to withstand a hurricane.

“They could help to improve and upgrade our shelter facilities,” Frank Davis said. “I pointed that out to him.”

White, too, said that was a point he made to Biden as well, along with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding for farmers in the area.

“What I have realized through this whole deal is the one we have is really too small and the one they have planned is even too small,” White said. “When you have something like this and you finally see all the people and all the stuff that comes with it, you really need something larger than you think.”

White added a larger EOC facility could also be a multi-use facility that serves other needs as well.

Keith Davis said he also discussed the need for improved infrastructure, but he focused more on communications after cell towers went down during the storm and left the county unable to communicate for several hours until portable devices were brought in to restore some service.

During their flight, which came up over Branford on the way from Gainesville and headed to Dowling Park and the western side of the county, which suffered the worst damage, Keith Davis said they viewed plenty of tree damage. They also checked out the Advent Christian Village in Dowling Park before heading to the northern part of the county before heading to the airport.

That gave him time to also address the impact the storm had on agriculture in the community, which includes the destroyed chicken houses and “millions” of chickens that had to be killed because the processing plants were shut down due to no power and the destroyed houses. Miles of downed fences also mean cows can’t be contained, Keith Davis said.

“It was a broad spectrum but the director of FEMA was definitely taking notes, so hopefully it does some good for our community and communities to come,” he said.