About 400 miles north of where Hurricane Irma first made landfall in South Florida, the coastal city of Jacksonville is being swallowed by water, with heavy rains and a record storm surge turning streets into churning rivers and wind-whipped waves crashing through windows.
The city government issued a flash flood emergency Monday morning, ordering people to go inside and stay there. Mayor Lenny Curry tweeted images of rescue crews heading out in boats. The local sheriff’s office asked people to put white flags outside their homes to signal for help.
The warnings pertained mostly to communities along the St. Johns River, where storm surges were expected to push water four to six feet above normal high-tide levels. Flood levels along the river in downtown Jacksonville had already surpassed previous highs recorded in 1864.
And high tide won’t hit until afternoon.
“It’s bad now. It’s going to continue to get worse,” National Weather Service meteorologist Angie Enyedi said at a morning briefing.
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She described the confluence of the storm surge, more than 10 inches of rain and winds from the south pushing water upstream on the river as a “trifecta effect.”
Authorities in the city of 880,000 said Monday morning there had been a number of injuries from trees crashing through homes and structure fires, but no reported deaths.
The flooding in north Florida was happening as Irma was downgraded to a tropical storm, moving north toward Georgia.
South of Jacksonville, in Clay County, people were being rescued from flooded homes.
John Ward, the emergency operations manager of Clay County, said Monday morning that crews had saved 46 people, with an undetermined number still stranded, The Associated Press reported.
The flooding in Jacksonville was expected, at least to a point. The city urged voluntary evacuation of low-lying areas last Wednesday, before the storm hit. But Irma’s impact has surpassed what officials expected.
“Now it’s time to heed our warnings,” Curry said.
The flooding could continue for about a week as the storm surge persists and tides rise and fall, authorities said.