Florida men took action when firefighters couldn’t respond to fire during Hurricane Idalia
Flooding from Hurricane Idalia’s storm surge and tree damage were keeping firefighters from getting to a house that was on fire in Hernando County, also known as Florida’s “Adventure Coast.”
Nevin Jenkins, who runs an air sanitizer business, said he couldn’t just stand by and watch how the flames destroyed the house and potentially the neighborhood, so he got into his airboat.
Jenkins said he and a neighbor rode up the salt marsh along the Gulf Coast and around an area that local authorities had blocked access to and used water hoses to fight the flames.
“It was ugly … it was a little ugly,” Jenkins said through nervous laughter.
Hurricane Idalia made landfall with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph and a storm surge of up to 15 feet on Wednesday morning, north of Hernando County, near Taylor County’s Keaton Beach.
Idalia left behind major flooding in the Steinhatchee River area and the island city of Cedar Key.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the high-end Category 3 hurricane is the first strong storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region since Hurricane Easy in 1950.
By Thursday morning, Idalia had delivered more coastal flooding in South Carolina and moved back into the Atlantic to continue moving eastward and away from the United States. The tropical storm is forecast to slow down and meander southward near Bermuda into the weekend.
The Florida Highway Patrol reported there were two weather-related fatal crashes hours before landfall.
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