Jacksonville, FL — It’s too early to tell how much Irma will cost the City of Jacksonville, but the Mayor’s Administration says there was a clear and significant impact.
“I would not be surprised if it’s not as equal to, or a bit more than Hurricane Matthew,” says Chief Administrative Officer Sam Mousa.
Mousa is among those who came before Jacksonville’s City Council Monday to break down their initial assessment of their preparation for and response to Irma. Mayor Lenny Curry says they will continue to be aggressive about getting things back to normal as quickly as possible.
“There’s certainly no time right now to pat ourselves on the back because there’s a lot of work to be done, but you need to know that- in a moment of crisis- we were ready,” Curry told the Council.
To allay any concerned about looting amid the evacuations, Sheriff Mike Williams says they saw slightly higher incidents of business and residential burglaries county-wide, but nothing "out of control". He also emphasized the new initiative from the State Attorney's Office which is targeting anyone who took advantage of the storm for criminal purposes.
“Make sure those people who victimized our citizens in their weakest moment get some special attention,” Williams says.
Mousa says the City did take a hit with infrastructure, including roof and window leaks, damage to pump stations and bridges, and even a fire station in Ortega that so severely flooded that it's currently considered uninhabitable. While there are emergency work orders out for some of the highest priority repairs, they're also assessing the dunes.
“We estimate about 33-50% of the sand that we placed under Matthew has been eroded,” Mousa says.
There has been no assessment done to the Pier yet, to determine if the rebuilding it saw after Matthew has also been damaged.
While there is no exact price tag yet, Mousa says they’re confident federal support will be there.
“FEMA’s in. FEMA’s with us,” he said.
As for the areas that have a more direct impact on you, Mousa says they will finish “cut and toss” operations by early Tuesday- clearing more than 900 trees from roadways overall. Debris pickup operations are set to begin next Monday, September 25th, and Mousa says the first pass across the City is projected to take about 45 days, and will start in the more heavily affected areas.
They have already identified 12 locations for temporary debris storage, and have three dozen trucks certified and ready to start pickup operations.
He’s asking you to be sure your debris is ready to go, though. Be sure not to mix storm debris with construction debris- they should be separately stacked curbside, and not near any powere line, tree, or other obstruction. If you have debris that can be easily bagged, Mousa says that will be collected with your standard trash pickup, but the bulk collection will be a longer operation.
JEA is expected to conduct their own comprehensive review of their storm response during a meeting Tuesday, but CEO Paul McElroy also gave the Council an overview Monday.
McElroy says they performed well when compared to the rest of the state, dealing with more than 1,200 trees that impacted service, losing more than 200 poles, and replacing almost 400 transformers. He acknowledged a total of about two million gallons in sewage overflow- saying that is too much, but also a marked improvement over the spills in Matthew, especially considering the amount of water dropped in our area during Irma and the amount that was, therefore, being processed by the lift stations. He says there are still a few hundred customers in the dark, but they continue to focus on getting them back on as quickly as possible.