JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In the hours after Jacksonville residents felt the impacts of Hurricane Helene, people were surprised to find Riverside’s Memorial Park was blocked off Friday morning.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s officers had roped off the entrances with crime scene tape as crews worked to repair what they could of the mess left behind.
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Concrete balustrades that once separated St. Johns River from the park laid like piles of rubble in the grass. Random pieces of debris lay scattered, and several sections of the black fence facing Riverside Avenue were damaged. Colin Mobley told News4jax he visited the park just as the winds started ramping up Thursday evening. He was surprised to see the damage.
“It truly is, and it hurt my heart to see,” Mobley said. “But, I come here all the time, my family and I. See, a lot of people in the community, they love this park. It’s a good memory, good picnics, and hopefully, it gets back to its good shape soon enough.”
That’s likely going to take some time.
As News4JAX has reported, the same concrete balustrades were already damaged from previous storms and were waiting to be repaired. The city had been making some progress on getting that process started, as recently as this past August following Tropical Storm Debby.
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Maria and Nastya Egorova were home from college and said the park holds some of their favorite memories.
“I used to I run for high school, so this was our regular running route,” Maria Egorova said. “We would come here almost every single day, and I’m kind of sad to see, like the border and the boundary fall apart. I thought it was really, really pretty, so I’m really sad to see it go.”
The Egorova sisters now wonder if Helene’s impact was an added setback to repairs from the previous storms. They hope to see repairs soon.
“I wonder how long it’s going to take, though,” Maria Egorova said. “For Homecoming this year, we took pictures here, and there were boundaries still up, and they haven’t really put it back together. So, I wonder how long it’s going take, but I hope they put it back together. It’s really pretty.”
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While many people throughout the city are cleaning up damage to their homes and property, many in Riverside hope to see their beloved Memorial Park return to the way it used to be.
“We know our city will rebuild everything, and it’s going to be great,” Nastya Egorova said.
News4JAX will reach out to the city to learn more about the next step in repairs following this most recent damage from Hurricane Helene.