COLUMBIA COUNTY, Fla. – The Columbia County Board of County Commissioners gave an update on the continued response and recovery after Hurricane Debby.
In an emergency meeting Monday, the commissioners made a motion to close all boat ramps along the Suwannee and the south end of Santa Fe River until further notice.
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The decision came as the commission spoke with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission about the ongoing flooding along the river.
They also agreed to keep the Citizen Information Center (386-719-7530) open until Wednesday so residents can get information and call in any storm damage they have.
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“We urge the public if you have damage to your home call it in and let us know so we can send our damage assessment crews out to take a look at it,” said Columbia County Emergency Management Director Shayne Morgan. “We work very well with our property appraiser’s office. They serve as our damage assessment team we get them a list of points they go out they find them they take pictures.”
The county saw heavy rain that caused flooding on roadways and in homes.
In the meantime, the county is working to get assistance from FEMA, but there are some steps they have to go through.
“Basically you have had 25 homes that were major damage or destroyed along with no insurance so that they can go through and give that individual assistance to us,” said Morgan. “The other side of the house is a public assistance, which is the damages that we incurred as the county to infrastructure. It can go to the debris clearing that we’ve been doing since last week, those type of things so all of that can play a part into our designation as FEMA declares.”
Morgan said FEMA is expected to be in the area starting Tuesday.
“They’ll have their blue navy shirts. They should have this but most importantly, look for their FEMA name tag,” Morgan said. “If they don’t have a female name tag, then they may not be FEMA representatives.”
Morgan encourages residents who received damage from the storm to also report it to FEMA.
Watch the roundtable discussion below.