ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Residents from Florida’s panhandle streamed into Jacksonville and the First Coast seeking refuge from Hurricane Isaias, only to find the region already grappling with flooding, waterspouts and rising tides that have blocked roads and strained emergency crews.
Kaylie Adams, who lives in Destin, was one of those evacuees. She said the drive to Jacksonville took a couple of extra hours because of heavy evacuee traffic on the roads.
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“On the way here was really incredible — seeing all of the first line vehicles headed that way to help,” Adams said. “So knowing that they do have help right there is comforting, at least.”
But Adams said the wait-and-watch part is harder to manage.
“I think if it goes silent with everybody else, I might assume worst case scenario and be pretty worried,” she said. “I think it depends on how much information I’m able to receive prior to the drive.”
Northeast Florida was dealing with its own weather problems even before evacuees arrived. Along A1A in St. Augustine Beach, several cars were forced to stop after water blocked the road Friday.
Emergency officials pointed to a combination of factors, including king tides, rain-saturated ground, and already-high river levels — all worsening as the outer bands of Hurricane Isaias pushed rainfall into the region.
Officials repeated a familiar warning: turn around, don’t drown.
A viewer-submitted video from Crescent Beach captured a waterspout spinning over the water earlier Friday. Lightning was also visible across the night sky as rain continued to fall.
All of this was happening hundreds of miles from where the center of Hurricane Isaias was expected to make landfall.
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