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Pinellas County was spared a direct hit from Hurricane Idalia, but felt its effects. The county assessed damage from the hurricane the morning after.
Cathie Perkins is the Director for Pinellas County Emergency Management.
“For the majority of our folks that live inland, this was a bit of a rain and a little bit of a wind event, maybe some folks lost power. But unfortunately, for quite a few residents on our coastline areas, barrier islands, they returned home to find damages in their homes from flooding, and some people are still having water in their neighborhoods this morning.”
Perkins says there are teams surveying the damage. At the peak of the evacuation, there were 1700 people occupying 10 risk shelters across Pinellas County. As of Thursday morning, 2600 homes were still without power.
She encourages residents with damage to file an insurance claim as soon as possible. You can get more information at pinellas.gov/flood-insurance.
