Elsa’s grip, attitudes, & frustration
North Port residents awoke Wednesday morning to flooding from Hurricane Elsa’s rain bands, July 7, 2021. Courtesy, City of North Port
Hurricane Elsa is still creating flooding problems for Florida despite departing the state last week as a tropical storm. The first Atlantic hurricane of the season killed a Jacksonville man and blew the roof off a local business as shown in this dramatic video. Meanwhile, a new survey shows 29% of Floridians say they’ll ignore future hurricane evacuation warnings. It’s all in this week’s Flood Digest.
Elsa: The Sarasota County city of North Port suffered three hours of deluge late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning sitting under one of Elsa’s rain bands, which dumped up to 11 inches of rain there. A state urban search-and-rescue team helped evacuate city residents this past weekend due to rising waters from nearby waterways cresting. About 250 homes so far have suffered water damage. Elsa wobbled west and missed vulnerable Tampa Bay, making landfall farther north in rural Taylor County as a tropical storm. As it reached Jacksonville, gusty winds of 50 mph knocked down a tree that struck two cars, killing one man. Ten more people were injured across the state line in Georgia from a possible offshoot tornado. Flood Warnings remain in effect for communities along the Sante Fe River in Northeast Florida where the level is four feet over flood stage and moderate flooding has been occurring. Although Elsa was thankfully a clunker for the most part, it was an excellent wake-up call that we’re in hurricane season and provided good practice for residents and emergency responders.
A security camera recorded the moment Elsa’s winds tore the roof off a business in Jacksonville Wednesday afternoon, July 7, 2021. Video here.
Storm Attitudes: And we need it. A new survey by AAA-The Auto Club Group reveals that many of our residents still aren’t hurricane ready:
- 43% of Floridians do not have an emergency plan
- 29% would not evacuate their home if they were warned to
- 60% of Floridians who would evacuate would only leave for a Category 3 hurricane or greater
As we know, the two biggest causes of hurricane damage are wind and rain, resulting in flooding. Flooding is the number one disaster in the U.S. And whether you’re in a designated “flood zone” or not, in Florida, if it can rain, it can flood! While FEMA is making its annual pitch for residents to purchase flood insurance, it’s also pushing resilience and mitigation. Building a Home that Stands Strong During a Hurricane is the personal story of a North Carolina family whose home was wiped out by 2018’s Hurricane Florence. It’s a step-by-step guide on resources to use when deciding how best to rebuild with an eye toward avoiding future flooding. What a very interesting and instructive read for any homeowner! Meanwhile, please remind your clients, colleagues, and family to visit Ready.gov to start their hurricane preparedness today. Also check out and share my Lisa’s Lucky 7 Hurricane Season Prep!
Keys Flooding: Perhaps no place in Florida is more vulnerable to catastrophic flooding than the low-lying Florida Keys. Officials there recently decided to move ahead with a plan to elevate streets throughout the Keys to prevent flooding, even though no funding exists at present to do so (read more here). It goes beyond an Army Corps of Engineers plan we’ve reported that focuses on floodproofing critical infrastructure, limited buyouts, and allowing nature to overtake the rest.
LMA Newsletter of 7-12-21
