MIDDLEBURG, Fla. — The owner of Black Creek Marina in Middleburg, John Hamilton, said he and his staff moved boats they rent out from the docks to dry land Sunday.
"We tell everybody that has boats here the safest thing they can do is haul them out onto the yard which is what we’ve done with our rental boats here," he said. "We want to get it done early. If you prepare for it well, it usually
doesn't happen, so that's what we're hoping."
While Hamilton said he's more optimistic about this storm than previous ones, he said he's still being cautious.
"I don't think it's going to be near like what Irma was, forcing a lot of water down Black Creek causing a whole bunch of flooding," Hamilton explained.
Hurricane Irma in 2017 filled Hamilton's store with four feet of water.
"I opened the door and everything just went floating away, but luckily we haven't had that since," Hamilton remembered.
Irma also destroyed the dock, Hamilton said.
Fortunately, the First Coast News Weather Team says water levels in the part of Black Creek where the marina is aren't too high right now.
"It hasn’t been near what it could be, so that’s what we watch," Hamilton said. "We tell everybody that has boats here the safest thing they can do is haul them out onto the yard which is what we’ve done with our rental boats here."
John Ward, Director of Emergency Management in Clay County, agreed that it's good to be cautiously optimistic.
"If we start getting rain in some of our rural areas and roads, that type of thing, you're going to see some ponding in certain areas," Ward said. "Right now, unless we get four to six inches of saturation of water, we're not going to see issues with Black Creek, but it's going to be all the other problem areas low-lying areas, the type of things that normally flood in an afternoon thunderstorm. You're going to potentially flood Tuesday night into Wednesday."
Ward said the county has a team working on a few planning scenarios depending on what the storm does.
"Right now, I think regardless of what it brings us we're so saturated we're going to be looking at potential vegetative debris, trees falling and some minor power outages depending on what this thing does when it gets out of the Gulf," Ward said.
Ward recommends trimming trees or lose items you may have in your yard as soon as possible. He also said get your hurricane kit ready since the season is just starting.