St. Lucie County - Thursday November 10, 2022: At first light, it appears that coastal erosion to the beaches and flooding of roads and properties along the Indian River Lagoon seem to be the worst damage done by Nicole in St. Lucie County.
“Yesterday afternoon we were seeing the surf come up over the dune at some of our beach parks like Walton Rocks just south of the power plant," said SLC Communications Director Eric Gill. "That’s really what we anticipate or expect to be the biggest concern and cost to the County at this point."
"There is also concerns about possible covert failures, but we’ll have to wait until the waters recedes," said Gill. "We know there is some flood waters on Hutchinson Island and some of the roads.”
No injuries were reported and relatively few emergency calls were made to the Emergency Operations Center, with one notable exception.
"There was a couple that was staying on a sail boat that had to be rescued by St. Lucie County Fire District," said Gill. "The boat was unsecured ended up pushing into a spoil island. But we didn’t have a lot of calls into the EOC for rescue or damage other than the couple on the sailboat.”
Power outages were minimal as well. “The last report I saw, 300 to 500 homes, somewhere in that range, lost power. You know with 380,000 residents, that’s pretty good to have less than 1% of your population without power.”
Gill however reminds residents to be cautious cleaning up any debris on their properties in the aftermath of the storm, when many injuries typically occur. And if you come across an intersection where the traffic lights are down, treat it as a four-way stop.