JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — The city of Jacksonville Beach tells Action News Jax area hotels are becoming full as Milton makes its way to Florida.
City leaders say people evacuating the Tampa Bay area and other parts of southwest Florida are finding refuge in Duval before the storm hits.
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“When you’re looking at places you can pretty easily get to from Tampa and the southwest coast, Jacksonville is definitely one of those,” Jacksonville Beach Mayor Chris Hoffman said. “A lot of us have family and friends in that area, so, I think, for a lot of people, it is a logical place to come even though we’re, certainly, not out of the woods with this storm.”
But as some Floridians flock to Jax Beach, some longtime locals say they’d love nothing more than to get out.
“If you have the money, I wouldn’t be here. If you have somebody in Georgia or more up north in Florida, it’s time to go,” John Martrell, who’s lived in Jacksonville since 2005, said.
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He came to Jax Beach not just for a midday walk before the hurricane, but to check on his mother, who lives on the beach. He says both of them lost power during Hurricane Helene, and they only expect a worse outcome from Milton.
“Dealing without power for three or four days, that’s good enough to leave for a storm. You think it ain’t no big deal, until it’s sweltering heat,” Martrell said.
Hoffman expects a number of outages from Milton, but said the safety of Beaches Energy crews will be the city’s priority as the powerful storm moves through the area.
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“They cannot work if the wind speeds are higher than 35 miles per hour. So we will not put them in harm’s way, any more than they are already in,” Hoffman said.
The city is also anticipating losing sand from dunes along the beach. But not even 6 months ago, the city finished its $32 million, federally-funded beach renourishment project.
The 10-mile project brought sand to rebuild dunes from Neptune to Ponte Vedra Beach. Hoffman said the dunes are in good shape right now, but the amount of sand lost depends on the strength of the storm.
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“We, potentially, due to the storm surge, may see some shearing of the dunes. But that is natural. It is alarming to see it, certainly, after a big storm, but that sand washes out, forms a sandbar off the coast, and naturally starts to restore itself,” Hoffman said.
The city just declared a local state of emergency, which will begin at noon on Wednesday and, as of right now, will extend through Saturday. City facilities will close Wednesday and are expected to reopen on Friday morning.
No bridge or beach access closures have yet been announced, but the city urges anyone staying for the storm to be inside and off the roads tomorrow, especially by the start of the afternoon hours.
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