The short-lived reprieve from Hurricane Helene came to a sudden stop when another monstrosity was born in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Milton ended hopes for a return to normalcy, forcing students and locals into a second scramble before the approaching storm.
Described by Gov. Ron DeSantis as “ominous,” Milton formed less than two weeks after the departure of Helene. The new hurricane tested the bounds of maximum Category 5 severity before weakening to a Category 3 upon landfall in Sarasota.
Though Alachua County escaped the brunt of Milton’s force, the area still sustained wind gusts surpassing 50 mph along with power outages, shelters at capacity, fallen trees and an onslaught of evacuees.
“The last time we had this kind of damage was at least 20 years ago,” said Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward. “It feels like a lot to us, but comparatively speaking, we’ll be fine.”
Fewer than 2,000 county residents lost power during Milton — a tally dwarfed by the 56,000 people with outages at the peak of Helene. Gainesville’s power was fully restored by Friday morning, according to GRU.
Alachua County also hosted over 500 evacuees between its general population and special needs shelters at the Martin Luther King Jr. Multipurpose Center, Easton-Newberry Sports Complex, Meadowbrook Elementary School and Senior Recreation Center. Though multiple shelters reached maximum capacity prior to Milton’s arrival, they were nearly empty by Thursday afternoon.
Gainesville’s remaining priority is three to four weeks of clearing downed trees and other debris, an effort delayed by no more than a few days following Milton, Ward said. The clean-up operation comes at the cost of $5 million from city emergency reserves, which he expects FEMA to fully reimburse.
Though weathering two storms in just as many weeks came as a surprise, the city’s hurricane preparation was years in the making.
“We’re not building a plan. We have the plan for it,” Ward said. “We just roll it out when it’s time.”
An influx of traffic also coursed through Gainesville as thousands of Sunshine State residents fled Milton’s path. Drivers pulled off the highway into Gainesville and joined locals in their search for gas.
The fuel had run dry at some stations as early as Monday — two days before Milton — and others faced shortages soon after. A Gate employee said the store received calls from across the state with questions about gas when it was already too late.
After the storm’s passage, employees of at least seven stations said a restock was expected to arrive before or during the weekend. Though the temporary fuel shortage doesn’t fall under the city’s jurisdiction, Ward said the issue had been noted in local recovery efforts.
Ward recounted watching a man fill his truck’s tank and seven more five-gallon jugs with
gas in the days before the storm, a prime example of what he said residents shouldn’t do in an emergency. Instead, he urged locals to take only what they needed.
He also expressed concern that global warming could bring the threat of more intense hurricanes and called for the prioritization of community resilience in the face of uncertainty. The city should fortify storm procedures and minimize its carbon footprint, he said.
“Climate change exists,” Ward said. “If we don’t prepare … we’re going to end up being one of those communities, eventually, that is forever changed, and I don’t want to be like that.”
Contact Rylan DiGiacomo-Rapp at rdigiacomo-rapp@alligator.org. Follow her on X @rylan_digirapp.
Rylan DiGiacomo-Rapp is a third year journalism and environmental science major and the Fall 2024 Enterprise Environmental Reporter. Outside of the newsroom, you can usually find her haunting local music venues.
