A.G. Gancarski
On Friday afternoon, as the worst of Matthew threatened his city with hurricane conditions through nightfall, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry briefed media and a home audience on the storm.
At his last briefing Friday morning, the message was “hunker down.” In the afternoon, the message was similar.
“We are in the middle of it, so my first message is stay inside,” said Curry.
Surges of 6 to 9 feet are still expected on the coast, with 3- to 6-foot surges inland.
Curry also warned of downed power lines as a reason to stay inside.
“Do not go outside until you receive clearance from the Emergency Operations Center,” Curry said.
Expectations are that such clearance will come around sunrise on Saturday. Until it is safe, people should expect power outages.
Even with the storm still south of Jacksonville, 61,000 JEA customers lack power. The timetable given for restoration is Sunday at noon.
There will be a safety briefing at 6 a.m., with public works teams ready to go when it is safe, to deal with stormwater, downed lines, and other issues.
Winds of 45 to 60 mph are hitting the coast, with hurricane-strength gusts; there may be sustained hurricane winds on the coast before 5 p.m.
Water levels are high at Mayport; these water levels will push up the St. Johns River.
Over the next several hours, water levels will be three feet higher than normal downtown.
Peak winds for Jacksonville should occur between 5 and 8 p.m..
Up to 10 inches of rain could fall in Jacksonville during the rest of the storm.
Regarding the beaches, there has been flooding on Jacksonville Beach all the way up to 2nd Street.
Jacksonville Beach Mayor Charlie Latham said the possibility of beach evacuees getting back in tomorrow was “basically nil.”
