Arriving right on schedule Friday afternoon, Hurricane Matthew wreaked havoc on northeast Florida, downing hundreds of trees, knocking out power and causing flooding in many areas of Clay County and the other inland counties.
Clay County
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The Clay County Sheriff's Office reported Saturday morning that emergency lines for cell phone users were down. Customers with Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint will receive a busy signal when trying to dial 911. If you have an emergency, you will need to contact the Sheriff's Office directly by calling 904-264-6512 or 904-529-5900.
Tropical storm force winds, heavy rain bands and significant storm surge flooding along and adjacent to the St. Johns River and its adjacent tributaries are impacting Clay County after Hurricane Matthew.
Residents should continue to shelter in place, which will allow first responders time to conduct initial damage assessments, Clay County Emergency Management officials said Friday evening.
Wind from the storm left a wake of damage, including fallen trees, downed power lines and flooding in many areas.
All residents should report storm-related damage of any kind to the Emergency Operations Center staff by calling 904-284-7703 and please email photos of damage to emergency.management@claycountygov.com.
Many Clay County residents were without power late Friday night. Emergency officials said they aware of the thousands of outages throughout the county.
Utility repair crews will begin power outage assessments Saturday morning, addressing high-population outage areas first.
Shelter counts for Clay County as of 8 p.m. Friday:
- Orange Park High School -- 375 evacuees with 66 domestic pets
- Clay High School -- 70 evacuees
- Keystone Heights High School -- 42 evacuees
PHOTOS: Hurricane Matthew's wake of damage
All county offices remain closed Friday.
All residents and businesses are still urged to sign up for local emergency alerts at alert.claycountygov.com.
Putnam County
The city of Palatka in Putnam County has issued a state of local emergency, effective at 6:25 p.m. Wednesday.
Putnam County Emergency Management officials will be opening the following shelters Thursday at 3 p.m. in preparation for Hurricane Matthew:
- Kelley Smith Elementary School - for special needs people only - 1411 Kelley Smith School Rd., Palatka
- Ochwilla Elementary School - pet-friendly - 299 North State Rd. 21, Hawthorne
- Middleton-Burney Elementary School - 1020 Huntington Rd., Crescent City
- Browning-Pearce Elementary School - 100 Bear Blvd., San Mateo
- Interlachen Elementary School - 251 South State Rd. 315, Interlachen
All shelters still had availability as of 7 a.m. Friday.
VIEW: Storm surge map | Putnam County Shelters, evacuation routes
Putnam County schools will be closed Thursday and Friday due to Hurricane Matthew.