No power, nowhere to stay as rural Florida starts recovering from Hurricane Idalia

The worst of Hurricane Idalia left residents of a region of tight-knit communities trying to find places to live as they rebuild - if they decide it's even worth it - and waiting potentially weeks for electricity to be restored after winds and water took out entire power grids.

Idalia came ashore Wednesday in Florida's sparsely populated Big Bend region, where places to fish and paddle are connected by swamps.

The scope of the disaster came into sharper focus Friday. A power cooperative warned its 28,000 customers it might take two weeks to restore electricity. Emergency officials promised trailers would arrive over the weekend to provide housing in an area that didn't have much to begin with.

"We’ll build back. We’ll continue to fish and enjoy catching the redfish and trout and eating oysters and catching scallops and eating them," said real estate agent Jimmy Butler, who lives in Horseshoe Beach, which saw some of the worst damage.

Idalia made landfall Wednesday near Keaton Beach with winds of 125 mph (200 kph) and a 6-foot (1.8-meter) storm surge. The fast-moving storm then tore through largely rural stretches of inland Florida and southern Georgia.

Tina Brotherton looks over the remains of her business which was completely destroyed in Hurricane Idalia. AP

While the storm wreaked havoc on a slice of old Florida that has escaped massive coastal development, its path and forward speed spared the state's insurance industry a huge financial hit, said elected Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, whose agency oversees the state Office of Insurance Regulation.

Two days after the more powerful Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida last year around Fort Myers, for instance, the state reported more than 62,000 insurance claims. In the two days after Idalia, there have been about 3,000, Patronis said.

But some of the Big Bend's older homes may have been passed down for generations, owned outright and not insured. People who lost everything may decide they can't afford or it is not worth it to rebuild, leaving a bigger cultural impact than a financial one, Patronis said.

"This is somebody’s way of life. This is the way somebody took care of their families and their families took care of them and they’re hard working people,” Patronis said. "Mother Nature’s going to wipe them off the map and they’re going to say, ‘You know what? Maybe this is a sign for us to cash out.’”

Theresa Rae Gay's neighborhood in St. Petersburg filled with a mix of ocean water, fresh water and sewage as the storm passed to the east. She lost many of her appliances and probably her furniture. It's expensive but "part of the game,” she said.

The Rollison brothers walk past a canal littered with debris in their hometown of Horseshoe Beach, Florida. Reuters

"Still worth it to live in this neighborhood and we’re still happy to be here,” Gay said.

More than 100,000 homes and businesses in Florida and Georgia remained without power Friday, according to PowerOutage.us. And even with high temperatures below normal, the high humidity meant sweltering late-summer days and nights, with no power to run air conditioners.

Associated Press