CROSS CITY — Cross City Nursing Home and Rehabilitation is 34 miles inland, but as staff prepared to evacuate in place for Helen's approach, the staff was in the same position as they were during two previous hurricanes, Idalia and Debbie. Similarly, the front windows of the facility were boarded up.
Families of the 60 residents were called before the storm and offered the possibility of evacuating their loved ones from the center, but all agreed that each patient remain in a fortified facility equipped with large generators. Selected.
“We're very well prepared for the storm,” said Shane Baumgardner, the facility's manager.
It's been a little more than a year since Hurricane Idalia's swollen Steinhatchee River flooded Lloyd's Restaurant to the top of its doors. And it's been only about 9 months since repairs from the deluge were completed and the owners were able to once again serve coconut shrimp and fried mullet with floor-to-ceiling views of the Gulf of Mexico from the river's shores. Only a month has passed.
While Helen walked toward town, owner Linda Wicker evacuated 80 miles east to Gainesville to prepare for the next phase of her business, which she has run in the town of Steinhatchee for the past 20 years. This period includes the previous three hurricanes and this one. The fourth is intimidation.
“Hermine was bad. We had a flood. And Idalia was even worse,” she sighs. “I've had worse things happen in my life. I try to think, 'When the time comes, I'll do what I have to do.' ”
Richard McDavid was in the parking lot of Roy's Restaurant with his teacup Yorkie, Sadie Mae, and he theorized that this might be the last time he saw Steinhatchee before Helen. He decided against boarding up his restaurant, McDavid's Cafe, which serves breakfast and lunch daily. He is confident that the altitude is high enough to escape the predicted rapids.
“I'm just going to leave it at that,” he said. “We'll find out tomorrow morning whether we should have ridden or not.”
Taylor County emergency management officials called McDavid and advised him to leave, but even though he was 200 meters from the river, McDavid said he did not realize he was at a high point. said.
“They're just looking at the map,” he said, waving his hand. “But I would be worried if a tornado came and the roof was blown off.”
He predicted, “This will be twice as big as Idalia.”
Ann Geggis is an insurance reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. Contact ageggis@gannett.com. Please support our journalism. Subscribe now.
