JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Storm recovery is underway across Northeast Florida as residents assess the damage from the band of storms that blew through with winds reaching up to 70-plus mph.
With hurricane season being less than a month away, it’s a good time to check your supply kits, generators and power tools.
Some items you should include are water, batteries, flashlights, canned goods and a first aid kit.
Friday’s storms caused multiple trees to crash down on roads, homes and even cars throughout the area. Some areas even lost power.
Paul Knight owns Oceanway Hardware, which has been in the community for 85 years. He said people rely on his business when getting prepared for a storm.
“They do come here and ask for things. And if I ain’t got it, I’ll get it from the warehouse so that they will have it before it happens,” Knight said.
Like some residents, Lillian Smith and Stanley Terry are trying to figure out the mess left behind. A massive tree fell behind Smith’s home and on top of Terry’s shed.
2024 Hurricane Season Preparedness
“I was standing at my front door. And I heard a limb fall in the front. I went to the front door,” Terry said. “We heard a big boom. We come back here and that’s when we saw this. But I didn’t know it was this big tree here. I thought I actually thought it was a pine tree.”
Smith said the winds were whipping so strong that she heard it inside her home.
“I heard a crack, but I didn’t know what it was,” Smith said.
MORE: Hurricane Preparedness Week starts May 5 | Tractor-trailer toppled on Dames Point Bridge, power knocked out at Duval schools as strong storms move through area
They were concerned about the removal of the tree because it appeared that another tree was leaning on it.
Terry expects the clean-up process to take a while.
No one was injured during the storm.
Smith said she is reconsidering what trees should remain on her property as a precautionary measure.
“If you have trees, and you can get them cut down, then perhaps that’s what you should be working on. We are in Florida. We don’t know from one day to the other when we’re going to have bad weather,” she said.
Knight said people were coming to his store to get supplies to help with cleanup.
“I got all that stuff in here to prepare for their problems because Oceanway got hit today,” Knight said.
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