Roads 95% reopened; power restoration moving along following Helene
LIVE OAK — The silver lining for Suwannee County in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene is they’ve been here and done that.
When Helene, a Category 4 storm hit in Taylor County in the early morning hours Friday and then came blowing through North Florida and the Suwannee River Valley, it was the third storm to come through in 13 months.
Suwannee County Sheriff Sam St. John, who also serves as the county’s emergency management director, said the destruction left behind by Helene was similar to what Idalia caused last August. The response efforts to the storm were also running much smoother, he said.
“It was pretty rough,” St. John said Sunday, adding that while the whole county was impacted, the worst of the destruction occurred again in western Suwannee County near Dowling Park and Luraville.
“The wind was higher and the duration was a lot longer, but the damage was comparable. It would have been a lot worse had Idalia not hit. We would have had a lot of trees knocked down. There was a lot of trees that weren’t around to be knocked down now.”
The previous impacts from Idalia and Hurricane Debby last month lessened the potential impacts from Helene, although the devastation was still immense.
St. John said in addition to a lot of downed trees and busted power lines and power poles, there were numerous instances where trees had fallen on houses as well.
In the City of Live Oak alone, there was damage to the Suwannee County Courthouse, the Suwannee County Historical Museum and Westwood Baptist Church had a drive-through awning collapse during the storm.
“The good thing is there was nobody hurt or killed,” St. John said.
Responding to that devastation has gone well, according to St. John.
“It’s probably the best it’s been since it’s our third go-round here,” St. John said. “It’s probably been the most effective and the quickest.”
St. John added the county has received a lot of help in that response from agencies around the state and the Florida National Guard.
The SCSO released Sunday evening that 95% of all the paved roads in the county had been reopened.
Additionally, Florida Power & Light and Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative were making headway in power restoration. As of Sunday evening, FPL had power back to 67% of its customers, while SVEC announced Monday morning that overall 59% of its members — 17,000 — had power restored in the 72 hours since the storm.
SVEC added in its Monday morning release that it expects to have 95% of its members back online by the following times:
- Lafayette County — 11:59 p.m., today;
- Columbia County — 11:59 p.m., Tuesday;
- Hamilton County — 11:59 p.m., Wednesday; and
- Suwannee County — 11:59 p.m., Thursday.
For people needing assistance, points of distribution with food, water, ice and tarps are open at RIVEROAK Technical College, 415 Pinewood Drive SW in Live Oak; the Dowling Park Church of God, 23500 County Road 250 in Dowling Park; the Wellborn Community Center, 1340 8th Avenue in Wellborn; the McAlpin Community Center, 9981 170th Terrace in McAlpin; and Hatch Park, 403 SE Craven Street in Branford.
Ice and tarps go quickly and may not always be available, but the sites are being restocked as quickly as possible.
Comfort stations, including bathrooms, showers and laundry services, are also available at all of those POD locations.