Hermine leaves power outages, downed trees, in its wake

TALLAHASSEE — Tens of thousands of residents of northern Florida and southern Georgia could be without electricity for days after strong winds from Hurricane Hermine swept through overnight, downing trees and power lines.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum said power outages are “pretty ubiquitous,” and about half the city and up to 100,000 residents were left in the dark.

Many roads in the area were covered in debris, downed trees and power lines, making many of them impassable. Emergency officials urged residents to stay off the roads.

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“We had a pretty stiff storm last night, and it dropped about 4 to 5 inches of rain on us through the night,”  Leon County Sheriff Mike Wood said. “We have lots and lots of trees down and lots of power outages."

One person was killed by a falling tree in Marion County, weather.com reported.

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Georgia Power reports that more than 30,000 of its customers were without power shortly before dawn Friday as Hermine rolled across the southern section of the state. Georgia Power’s online outage map showed that many of the outages were in and around the cities of Valdosta and Brunswick.

Off the Florida coast, about one third of Cedar Key was underwater, according to Police Chief Virgil Sandlin.

"We're slowly recovering but it's going to be a SLOW recovery," he said Friday afternoon. "I would say 10-plus million dollars, easily."

Pat Bonish, owner of Bonish Studio in downtown Cedar Key, said water was waist-deep in his business, which was  probably a total loss. "It was like a river coming up and under,” he said.

As the storm approached  Thursday and an evacuation order was issued, Bonish hadheld a hurricane party there for holdouts.

Mayor Heath Davis, who had popped into the party Thursday, traveled in a small boat Friday to observe damage and flooding in the streets.

Martin Kemp, owner of the 1842 Daily Grind coffee shop, offered free coffee, muffins and water. The business got 2 inches of water. Kemp said he felt “lucky.”

“How can I charge people when they’ve lost half their stuff?” he asked.

Farther north up the coastline, Wakulla County and much of the Big Bend area took a beating as the first hurricane to hit the states in more than 10 years made landfall across the northern tier  packing 80-mph winds and gusts close to 100 mph.

Wakulla County Administrator Dustin Hinkel said one couple suffered minor injuries when they hit a tree that had fallen into the road, the Associated Press reported.

He noted that a storm surge of 8 to 10 feet hit the county’s beaches, damaging docks and flooding coastal roads in the county south of Tallahassee.

Wakulla County Undersheriff Trey Morrison estimated  150 to 200 trees were felled by high winds throughout the night, bringing down dozens of power lines.

“If we're lucky, it's going to take two days to get power throughout the county,” he said.

Authorities made several emergency rescues, including pulling a mother and her three daughters from a Crawfordville home after a tree came crashing through the roof.

Several people along Mashes Sands and Ochlocoknee Bay were pulled from floodwaters, Morrison said, but there were no injuries.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling,” he said. “The scary part is we dodged a bullet. It could have been so much worse.”

In Pasco County, just north of Tampa, fire rescue personnel and sheriff’s deputies used high-water vehicles to rescue people from rising water and take them to a nearby shelter. At least 18 people were forced from their homes in Green Key and Hudson Beach by flooding.

Burlew and Etters report for the Tallahassee Democrat; Stanglin reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Chris Bonanno, Florida Today