Cedar Key residents spent Tuesday recovering from Debby, which hit the city as a Category 1 hurricane Monday.
Despite flooding, high winds and a power outage that lasted until Tuesday afternoon, many residents in this island city along the Gulf of Mexico were grateful the storm was not as severe as Hurricane Idalia, which devastated the area last fall.
“We waited for the worst,” said Janice Fugate, a paralegal who has lived in Cedar Key for 20 years. “Fortunately for us, we only had about 6 to 8 inches of water, while with Idalia we had about 4 feet of water.”
At least six people have died due to the storm, the Associated Press reported, either in traffic accidents or from fallen trees.
A 13-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home Monday morning in Levy County, according to the county sheriff’s office.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with this family as they deal with this tragedy,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “We encourage everyone to use extreme caution as they begin to assess and clean up the damage. Downed powerlines and falling trees are among the many hazards.”
About 500 people were rescued Monday from flooded homes in Sarasota, a beach city popular with tourists, the local police department said. Just north of Sarasota, Manatee County officials said 186 people were rescued.
State officials said it may be two weeks before staff are able to fully assess storm damage in parts of north central Florida, as they wait for river levels there to crest.
“You’re going to see the tributaries rise. That’s just inevitable. How much? We’ll see,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday. “It may be that it’s not flooded today and it could be flooded tomorrow.”
Adam Searles, a Ph.D. student studying marine ecology in Cedar Key, is bracing for more storms due to the changing climate.
“Warming waters have a cascading effect,” Searles said. “More and higher intensity storms is something we as a society are going to have to focus on.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to have above-normal activity due to warming ocean temperatures, La Nina, reduced Atlantic trade winds and less wind shear. A range of 17 to 25 storms are forecasted with 8 to 13 predicted to become major hurricanes.
“I’m a little scared that we are only on storm D of the alphabet,” said Hannah Healey, a coffee shop owner. “Normally the H’s and the I’s are what get nasty for us. I’m hoping for a calm season, but if not, we just have to do it all again."
Regarding preparing for future storms, other residents also said they will take necessary precautions, while realizing they must be ready to face the unpredictable.
“We learned some lessons in preparation because of Hurricane Idalia,” said Mike Allen, director of the Nature Coast Biological Station in Cedar Key. “Communities like this have to keep adapting to make it quicker to bounce back.”
Construction worker Bobby Touchton has been a part of rebuilding efforts following high-powered storms in his three years living in Cedar Key. Resilience is what matters, he said.
“The strength of this community is the way we come together to clean up and start over, so I don’t think it will be a problem for us to put the city back together this year,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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