Hurricane Matthew is being blamed for the deaths of 10 people in the United States, including 2 people in St Lucie County. A 58-year old woman in Indian River Estates suffered a heart attack, while an 82-year old man was rushed to the hospital early Friday morning where he was pronounced dead. In both cases emergency crews couldn’t get to the people in time due to the high winds. There were no deaths in Martin County.
Many people had issues with evacuating because of the the cost.
Martin County opened up several free shelters for residents to ride out the storm, including a pet-friendly shelter at the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast. The county even provided free transportation to the shelter for residents that needed it. Approximately 1,200 people spent Thursday evening in the Martin County shelters protected from the storm.
The Treasure Coast dodged a major bullet with Hurricane Matthew staying out to sea and not directly hitting us like some of the spaghetti models showed.
Still, several thousand people were affected by the storm. At one point nearly 90,000 FPL customers in Martin and St Lucie counties were without power. FPL crews worked quickly to restore power, and while many either never lost power at all, or had their power back Friday morning, about 1,800 customers still don’t have their power back.
Treasure Coast recovers after Hurricane Matthew
photo cyndi lenz
Another 16,000 Fort Pierce Utilities customers lost power. Most had their power back up by Sunday morning, but some 400 homes and businesses had damage that require a certified contractor to come out and fix at the home.
The major impact however were downed trees and power lines throughout the area.
Treasure Coast recovers after Hurricane Matthew
photo cyndi lenz
There were also several boats that were a casualty of Matthew. According to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office one sailboat sank while another washed ashore. Several other boats broke anchor and washed up on some of the various islands, with one boat coming to rest along the Jensen Beach Causeway. Still, the images of the flooding in St. Augustine show just how bad things could have been here. Instead, life is quickly returning to normal. Most parks were back open Friday, and some of the Martin County Library branches opened back up as early as Saturday. Schools are opening and operating normally today.
Storm debris should already be out on the curb waiting for pick up. Make sure to separate vegetation debris like tree branches from demolition debris like broken pieces of fence or roof. Waste Pro in Port St Lucie started picking up the debris Saturday morning. Unincorporated St Lucie County will begin picking up debris today. Normal trash and recycling services are beginning today in both Martin and St Lucie counties.
If you plan on hiring anyone to do repair work, make sure to check that they are a licensed and insured contractor. Matthew is heading out to sea and is no longer a threat to Florida.
As a result, local governments are asking everyone to begin the process of taking down your storm shutters because if you have a fire in your house the firemen cannot get in.
