FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – Emergency management officials are watching Hurricane Milton very closely and may issue evacuation orders as soon as Wednesday.
“Those particularly on the easternmost side of our community be prepared for an evacuation,” Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord said on Monday.
Lord said the area has already been inundated with rain over the last few weeks, and the soil is already saturated ahead of the storm.
“We’re worried about flooding,” he said. “The soil is looser because of the rain, so that means lower winds are going to knock over trees much easier than a typical hurricane passing through.”
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Any evacuation order would likely start with Zone A, which is the barrier island.
That includes Flagler Beach, which was hard hit by hurricanes Ian and Nicole two years ago.
A mobile home community off Flagler Avenue was flooded by those storms.
Craig Peters said he has lived there for 33 years.
“I’ve been through five hurricanes and Andrew in Miami,” he told News 6. “They can’t make me leave. I have no other place to go. I’d rather stay here.”
If and when evacuation orders do come out, Flagler County leaders are urging people who live in the following areas to prepare now:
- Residents living in Mobile Homes and RV’s Countywide
- Coastal / Island Communities
- The entire island from the St Johns County Line to the Volusia County Line
- Marineland through Flagler Beach
- Mainland Communities
- South of SR-100 (Moody Blvd)
- Neighborhoods off John Anderson Hwy
- Neighborhoods off Palm Dr
- Bulow RV Park & Homes, off Old Kings Rd
- Polo Club West / Sweetbottom Plantation properties along Lexington Court / Ashland Way and that back up to the Bulow Creek
- Between SR-100 (Moody Blvd) and Palm Coast Pkwy
- Neighborhoods off Lambert Ave
- In Marina Del Palm the properties along the Intracoastal Waterway / basin
- In Palm Coast Plantation:
- Properties off South / North Riverwalk Drive
- North of Palm Coast Pkwy
- Properties within Princess Place