Hurricane Milton made landfall nearly two weeks ago. For some, the disaster isn’t over. Flooding is still causing big problems after the storm dumped more than a foot of rain in some parts of the greater Tampa Bay area.
In Hernando County, the Withlacoochee River is finally starting to go down, but it’s going to take some time for floodwaters to recede. Last week, the river crested at almost 20 feet.
Hernando County emergency manager David DeCarlo joined "Florida Matters" to say it’s the highest the river’s been since the 1930s.
Hurricane Milton dumped a lot of rain on its way through the Tampa Bay region nearly two weeks ago, and much of it is still making its way through the river system. We're recording this on Monday, Oct. 21, and in some places, rivers are still at a dangerous level. What does the Withlacoochee River look like this week?
Over the weekend, we reached crest at approximately 19.7 feet, 19.8 at Trilby. We got up to 13 feet in the area of Croom, which is on the northern end of our county. Trilby is south end, closer to the Pasco-Hernando line, and the levels that we've seen at Trilby, we haven't seen since the early 1930s.
In Croom, we've not seen that type of flooding since 1960 so it's pretty historic. A lot of people who live along the river have not seen that type of flooding, and just didn't expect it to get that high. Even though the gauges and forecast said it was going to get up there, I think it caught a lot of people by surprise. There's a lot of areas that they didn't think would flood and ended up flooding. There are several lakes within that area of Ridge Manor in Hernando County by the Trilby gauge that began to flood. A number of houses are underwater. Some neighborhoods are just inundated. Their houses may be fine, but ingress and egress into their neighborhoods just far exceed what a vehicle can get through. So we're still dealing with that.
However, it is receding. Today's numbers this morning were 19.3 and the Croom was just under 13 feet. It's forecast to slowly recede over the next several weeks. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
You talked about Ridge Manor. Brooksville is another name I've heard. Are there some other communities you're worried about particularly along that river?
Several little different areas and pockets within the Ridge Manor community area. There's Talisman Estates, some other neighborhoods. All those have been affected. Highway 301, at the county line of Hernando and Pasco, ended up getting closed because the river just inundated that section of 301. We had to close that. There were some areas near Cortez Boulevard that water got over that we've never seen before. So again, it's a learning experience for not only the residents, but our response team.
We had a great plan in place. We do have PODs and opened up a nice little comfort station at Ridge Manor community park so people can take advantage of that. We understand people are hurting and they need commodities such as water, MREs. We have a shower, bathroom, laundry and trailer available. We also have some state representatives and FEMA representatives there at Ridge Manor Community Park to help those individuals register for FEMA assistance.
Do you have a sense of how many people are affected at this point, or is it a bit hard to tell, because these rivers have been going up and they're slowly going down. Not everybody's affected at once, right?
Not everybody's affected at once. We really don't have a strong hold on how many people are affected. However, I do know through our GIS and Property Appraiser, we do have a little over 3,400 residential properties along the river, so it could be affecting a lot of people. We understand that, so we're trying our best to get the information for any unmet needs. We're trying to collect that so we can fulfill those unmet needs.
Not only do we have the river on the east side, we're still feeling the effects of Hurricane Helene on the west side of the county, where we had a storm surge. We're in the process of still collecting storm debris from Hurricane Helene on the west side of the county. We have comfort stations at the south end of the county, on the west end for Aripeka residents, and then we have another one at the old beach property on Shoal Line Boulevard for Hernando Beach residents. So we're dealing with two different storms. It's a precarious situation. We're still in response for one storm, and we're still in recovery in the other storm. And then now overlapping.
You mentioned a few things I wanted to clarify: PODs and MREs. Can you just explain what those two things are?
The POD is a point of distribution. It's a place where we have food, or MREs — ready to eat meals. We have cases of water and MREs for those that are affected. With a POD, you stay in the car and go through the line. A volunteer will have your trunk open. A volunteer will place the items in your trunk, shut your trunk, and you move on. So that's at the Ridge Manor Community Park there.
Also at the community park, if you want to park, and if you have laundry to do, we set up laundry stations there for people, because we understand a number of homes got affected. You just can't do your laundry, or you can't cook your meals. We've set up hot meals at that location as well as at the park to help the community. The comfort stations are open 24 hours. After you get off work, go up if you need a hot shower. We understand that need was there, so we absolutely fulfilled that need.
Are there still shelters open at this point, or are you basically doing what you can to help in terms of laundry, hot food and water, but people are having to find their own places to stay if their homes are underwater?
No, we still have the Enrichment Center located on John Grubbs Boulevard in Brooksville that is still open. It still has people that were seeking public shelter from Hurricane Helene. We have people there from Hurricane Milton, and we have people there from the flood. So again, we got three different catastrophes. We do still have a public shelter open and available, so you can get refuge there at the Richmond Center. You'll absolutely get fed. There's also a laundry trailer there. We set up a laundry trailer so you can do your laundry there at the public shelter. So we're trying to meet those accommodations and basic necessities for the public during these catastrophes.
I've seen quite a lot of footage of sheriff's deputies out and about on flat bottom boats, going house to house, if necessary, and rescuing people. Is that still something you're having to do, or are these rivers starting to slowly come down? Are you able to transition out of that?
Well, it depends on how fast the river cedes, but yeah, absolutely. If someone still needs to get rescued or evacuated, we are assisting those evacuees not only through the sheriff's office but also fire rescue. We've done a number of those evacuations when they call our Public Information Center, which is still open and available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. if you have any storm-related or flooding questions. You can call 352-754-4083 if you live in Hernando County or call 911 if you need to get evacuated. We already have water assets in the area, so we can deploy those and get to you as soon as possible.
"Public safety is paramount. Life safety is paramount. Luckily, we haven't had any fatalities within Hernando County itself from either of these storms. And I am very proud of that."David DeCarlo, Hernando County emergency manager
The Withlacoochee and some of these other river systems that are affected wind their way through several counties. Are you working closely with Pasco County, for example, and have you been able to coordinate in terms of anticipating effects or warning people what those effects may be, if there are other folks in other areas who may be worse affected down the track?
Yes, absolutely. We have regional calls between all our emergency management partners from Pasco, Sumter to Citrus. We share the information. We understand that the Green Swamp is overflowing, and it's just like a bathtub. The water's got to drain somewhere, and when the bathtub overflows, it's going to go and that's what's happened.
As the river runs south and north, our northern counties were working with them. We asked them for the assistance, because the Withlacoochee River in Hernando County was technically closed by Florida Administrative Code rule because of the flooding. We asked our neighboring counties if they could close their boat ramps in preparation to assist us, because we didn't want any boat traffic down on the Withlacoochee. It causes a wake that will just further inundate the residents of those homes that are in the area. We want to prevent looting on the river, people going on the river and taking property that doesn't belong to them.
Have you seen some examples of looting? Is that something you've had to deal with this time?
Luckily I haven't heard of any. So luckily, hopefully, we prevented that. Not to say that it hasn't happened, but it hasn't been reported to me at this point in time. We wanted to take those preventative measures to give security to those residents. We worked with our partners, the counties to our north. They were more than accommodating. I know Citrus County closed their boat ramps and they installed a curfew on the river.
We worked with FWC and they closed the river for us. Technically in Sumter County, they closed their boat ramps as well. So it's a big partnership. You can't do this by yourself. As emergency management director, I cannot do this by myself. We have 20 emergency support functions all the way from volunteers and donations, transportation, fuel, cyber, public works to utilities. A number of different county entities and community partners need to really get together and work as a team to meet the needs of the communities that we serve.
It's coming up on almost a month now since Helene, so you have these back-to-back disasters. How are the emergency staff and the county folks doing? Do you have what you need to keep people supported through this time? Are you starting to reach a point where we need extra help?
We have reached that. Everybody worked very long hours. In fact, we asked for an incident management team or an EOC support team for Hernando County, because we only have a certain amount of staff and the amount of work that those two disasters entailed just needed extra help. I know I'm overwhelmed and I'm not scared to ask for help, and that's what they're there for. So they came in and they were here for a couple weeks, and they assisted us with documentation and support work and operations and logistics. We did the same for our health and human services. We have a health and human service support team actually on site right now, because not only do we need help with that, but the transitional sheltering complexities are going to arise, not only for Hurricane Helene, but also for Milton. People need transitional housing. We only have a certain amount of staff. We understand that it's going to be much more than what our staff can handle due to the amount of devastation that we have. So we absolutely have asked for assistance. And I believe it's a smart thing to do.
What are the next few weeks looking like? What do you think the priorities are going to be? Obviously that water is going to take a while to recede. It may take some time for the full extent of the damage to come into focus. Then, as you mentioned at the start of our conversation, there is still a lot of storm debris from Hurricane Helene that needs to be picked up and carted away. How do you prioritize over the next few weeks for all that you need to get done?
It's like juggling four or five balls and making sure they all stay in the air. A number of different departments have stepped up and taken control of different priorities. For instance, our Department of Public Works is taking care of our contractors for debris pickup and debris monitoring, so that is ongoing. Our utilities and building departments are still monitoring the water systems and doing damage assessments on the west side, but we really can't do damage assessment on the east side until the water recedes, so that's just a whole other process. We're just going to keep that in that cycle, continue to do our damage assessment with what we can in the areas that we get gain access to and continue that damage assessment as the water recedes. We can gain access further and further into those neighborhoods to help not only the citizens, but collect that data for emergency permitting or anything of that nature.
Not only that, when the water recedes, we still have people or residents who will have to be cutting out drywall and renovating their homes, and that's just more debris that's going to have to be picked up. We're going to have our east side convenience center for garbage or construction debris that's going to be open. The problem is that the water came up to our east side convenience center and we had to turn the power off. So we're trying to make alternative measures to get either large dumpsters or find another location to put that debris, because people just have regular refuge that they normally have on a day-to-day basis. This is compiling up because the garbage trucks just can't get in that area. So we're trying to do everything we can to assist and meet those demands of public needs.
That's what the government does. Public safety is paramount. Life safety is paramount. Luckily, we haven't had any fatalities within Hernando County itself from either of these storms. And I am very proud of that. The last thing I need is an injury, not only to a residence but also first responders working very closely with electrics. They're going individually house by house within the flooded areas, pulling meters as they see fit to make sure that the electrical systems aren’t compromised, that they're rendered safe. So when the power does come back on, it doesn't start any fires. So it's an absolutely collective effort from all of our partners and nonprofits.
Could you remind our listeners the number to call if they need help in the Hernando County area?
The Public Information Center is open. It's from eight to five daily, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. That number is 352-754-4083. You can call that number to get any services or any information. They'll refer you or they'll be able to answer your questions there on the phone if you need evacuation. You can also call 911. That'll go straight to our dispatch center with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, and they'll make arrangements for water assets to evacuate you out of the area. But if you have any storm-related questions, please use our Public Information Center. Please use 911 for emergency services only. Response times may be delayed just because of the water, and we can't get emergency services in to you. We'll have to get to you by boat or any other type of water asset, so just be prepared for that.
