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News Update

News Update

The effects of Hurricane Helene were felt far across Florida

ByJasper

Sep 27, 2024 #Accidents, #Accidents u0026 Disasters, #Airport, #Beach, #Blog, #Caloosahatchee, #Caloosahatchee River, #Cape, #Cape Coral, #Coral, #Coverage, #Department, #Disasters, #Exclude, #Exclude from Paywall Logic Tests, #FL, #Florida, #Florida Department of Transportation, #Fort, #Fort Myers( t)Fort Myers Beach, #from, #Hurricanes, #Hurricanes(Weather), #international, #Island, #Live, #Live Coverage, #Local, #Local News, #Logic, #Modular, #Modular Story, #Myers, #Negative, #News, #of, #Overall Negative, #Paywall, #Pine, #Pine Island, #River, #Sanibel, #Southwest, #Southwest Florida, #Southwest Florida International Airport, #Story, #Testing, #Total, #Transportation, #TTP, #TTP Live Blog, #u0026, #Weather
The effects of Hurricane Helene were felt far across Florida

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Lee County is in recovery mode from the impacts of Helene today (Sept. 27). Significant storm surge occurred throughout the county, from Fort Myers Beach to downtown Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Sanibel, Pine Island and Matlacha.

This story continues to develop and our reporters and photographers continue to report from locations across Lee County today with the latest information on flooding, damage, power outages and what you need to know.

Helpful links

POWER OUTAGES: The LCEC power card can be found HERE.

POWER OUTAGES: FPL’s tracker is HERE.

POWER OUTAGES: HERE you can find the power outage tracker for the USA

AIRPORT: RSW’s flight tracker for delays and cancellations

Reporter Chad Gillis is on Fort Myers Beach this morning:

The streets of Fort Myers Beach were covered in a quarter-inch layer of sand as the water receded early Friday morning.

Hurricane Helene passed offshore on Thursday and made landfall in the Big Bend area last night.

The storm caused significant flooding along the Lee County coast, flooding some first-floor homes and businesses.

Cars trickled off the island very slowly as they drove through the remaining seawater.

Shortly before dawn, street barricades and other debris hovered along Crescent Street.

The next high tide phase will occur at 9:18 a.m. and experts expect the water to fully recede by the low tide phase in the afternoon.

As of 6 a.m.: FPL says: “We are responding to severe weather impacting portions of Florida. Crews will restore power between weather bands as conditions permit. Remember to stay away from flooding, downed power lines and debris.” Visit FPL.com/storm

Total number of customers in Lee County: 293,210 Total number of outbound customers: 10,560

There was no violation, but the Florida Department of Transportation closed the Sanibel Causeway in both directions, Sanibel spokesman Eric Jackson said.

City offices will remain closed today due to “significant flooding on the island,” Jackson said. “Staff will assess the situation and respond. It will take some time for the water to recede and for emergency services to clear the roadways of debris

Lee County public schools will be closed for a second day today due to impacts from Hurricane Helene, the school district announced late Thursday.

On Thursday evening, the district announced that classes would resume on Friday after closing on Thursday. The district later announced it would close three schools on barrier islands that were hit hard by flooding from storm surge from Helen, then made an updated announcement that all schools would be closed.

Southwest Florida residents may have to deal with impassable roads and ongoing flooding today, especially in coastal communities.

After a relative calm from the storm on Thursday afternoon, a wave of storm surge inundated Fort Myers Beach on Thursday evening, stranding residents; caused the Caloosahatchee to rise and threaten parts of downtown Fort Myers and surrounding neighborhoods; ruined a business on Pine Island and made roads impassable in Cape Coral and Sanibel.

A Fort Myers official expected the peak surge to occur at 1 a.m. overnight.

Water is expected to still be on the Fort Myers Beach landscape Friday morning when high tide occurs at 9:18 a.m

Hurricane Helen: Coverage of the storm’s arrival Thursday

Video coverage of Hurricane Helene

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Storm surge from Hurricane Helene threatens the Matlacha Bridge near Fort Myers

Storm surge from Hurricane Helene threatens the Matlacha Bridge near Fort Myers

More video coverage

The News-Press staff covered every corner of Lee County and produced numerous videos showing the impact of Hurricane Helene. Here is a link to all the videos taken in Lee and Collier County on Wednesday as the storm arrived offshore.

28 Videos of Hurricane Helene in SWFL: HERE

Photo galleries

Here are some of the photo galleries taken Wednesday showing the fury of Hurricane Helene. Although Lee County and Southwest Florida were not directly hit by the storm, which became a Category 4 storm, Thursday evening, there was significant storm surge and flooding.

By Jasper

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