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The focus in Clay County now is cleanup.
“We are going from a response phase in to a recovery phase,” says County Commission Chair Doug Conkey.
With the rain finally letting up on Northeast Florida, emergency management officials are discovering a lot of damage to homes and roadways.
One of the most serious problems in Clay County right now is the collapse of County Road 218. Emergency Management Chief Lorin Mock says that road is a major thoroughfare for the area. While Public Works worked through today to fill one of the problems, a collapse near Carter Spencer will need to be entirely rebuilt.
“Within two weeks we will have traffic back on this road,” says Director of Engineering and Public Works Jeff Beck.
Mock says they are anticipating more damage as flooding around the area continues to recede. Crews are right now tallying up all the problems so when the state submits a request for federal money to help with clean-up, Clay County will be counted.
Among the damage they already know of, at least 200 structures around the county sustained water damage. Mock estimates at least 300 more structures will be reported throughout cleanup.
But the flooding could take days to recede, especially in the hard hit areas around Black Creek. Sheriff Rich Beseler says they have rescued 90 people from area homes and camps so far, but those rescues cannot be performed after nightfall.
All on hand agree that while we are out of the worst because the weather has finally settled after dumping 16 inches of rain on the area, there is still a long road to go cleaning after Debby.
“Water is not going up any more, but it’s not going to go down rapidly,” Beseler says.
And while area residents begin to clear their homes of storm damage and debris, Mock urges you to use caution. He says there was only one injury in the county which occurred when a roof collapsed on a man in the Orange Park area. But with many injuries resulting from people working through cleaning, be careful to not get tacked on to that list.
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