JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville was spared from a direct hit from Hurricane Idalila, but the storm still left its mark on parts of the city.
One of the areas affected was the Riverside neighborhood, where Memorial Park flooded and the river wall was damaged.
The same wall was damaged during Hurricane Irma in 2017 and had to be replaced.
Right now, the city said it is assessing the damage and will decide what is going to happen, how it will be rebuilt, the cost and how quickly it can be done.
Some are asking how the original balustrades built about 100 years ago could last that long while the new structure couldn’t even last through what was basically Nor’easter-type winds and waves.
Wayne Campbell lives next to the park and watched as it came down piece by piece.
“I think they should rebuild it. But something different would be something new. Right?” Campbell said. “I mean, I know its history. But yeah. It’s gonna keep doing that. I will try something new. I mean, the storms just getting worse anyway.”
Bill Long, who lives along the river, was cleaning up his home Thursday.
“It’s part of living on the water. And you know, things have changed some but with global warming and all of that I’m not sure what the reason is, but there’s definitely some concerns if you’re gonna live on the water, but we love it here,” Long said.
The problems not only occurred along the St. Johns River.
In Ft. Caroline, Dan Jones was on the phone with his insurance company Thursday after a neighbor’s tree hit his roof.
“It sounded like a car hit the house. It was just that loud. So I looked out front, no car, didn’t see anything. I came back to the back and saw this damage,” Jones said, adding that the damage wasn’t horrible.
Throughout Jacksonville, there were people cleaning up after the storm.
In San Marco a man was doing some tree trimming at his house and storm debris was being piled up along the roads.
City crews will be picking it up on yard waste days.