Hurricane Helene made landfall near Steinhatchee Thursday night as one of, if not the, most powerful hurricane to make landfall in the Big Bend region.
The storm brought widespread power outages and damage to Gilchrist County.
“This is probably the worst storm that I’ve witnessed,” County Commissioner Darrell Smith said at an emergency meeting of the Board of County Commissioners Tuesday.
As much as 96 percent of Gilchrist County lost power as a result of the hurricane.
Fire Chief James Campbell reported that there were fatalities during the storm, none of them appeared to have occurred as a result of the storm.
Campbell said crews found someone that had likely been dead for at least two weeks while doing wellness checks after the storm.
County Administrator Bobby Crosby said the county is working with the Florida Department of Transportation about road cleanup. Crosby said working with DOT is beneficial to the county because it means the county does not have to write checks for cleanup, then wait for reimbursement because the state will handle the costs.
Crosby said the county will put out more information once work on the contract is completed.
FEMA has not declared Gilchrist County an Individual Assistance county yet. Crosby said he was told it will happen eventually.
Crosby said his office has received over 150 emails regarding damage. He recommended sending that information to FEMA so they can qualify it.
Crosby said once the state sends FEMA in, the county will ask them to spread out to more locations to make it easier for residents to get assistance.
Gilchrist residents can still get help from FEMA representatives in regard to damage from Hurricane Debby.
Santa Fe Park remains closed due to down trees and power lines in the park.
Points of distribution for supplies have been set up in Gilchrist County. Emergency Management Director Ralph Smith said he will make sure there are supplies for residents to pick up while there are still homes without power.
Madison Redd from Central Florida Electric Cooperative provided a power update for the board.
She said there were still around 2,400 members in Gilchrist County without power, or 28 percent of CFEC members in the county.
She said CFEC expects power back to all houses that can safely receive it at noon on Thursday.
Redd said there have been no injuries as of Tuesday morning as a result of the restoration process.
“It’s dangerous work,” she said. “Obviously we’re focused on quick, but also safe.”
All Solid Waste sites have reopened. Limited sites were open Saturday after the storm because of power outages, with the main site running on generator power.
Crosby said there was damage to one county building, a building at one of the AT&T towers where the top layer of the roof was rolled back.
Chief Campbell said there were two structure fires during the storm and an accident in front of Trenton Elementary School.
Campbell said Gilchrist County Fire Rescue had 22 firefighters on duty Tuesday morning, and they would release firefighters that had come from other areas Wednesday morning.
He said GCFR had five additional ambulances. Strike teams from outside the areas allowed GCFR employees to go home and assess and work on any damage at their own homes.
Campbell said GCFR did not respond to calls for five hours during the storm because of high winds.
Crosby said there would be no fee for any permits related to storm damage, but structural issues would require an engineer.
Debris can be put in piles on the side of the road to be picked up.