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Lakeland and Polk County escaped relatively unscathed when winds and rains from Hurricane Helene swirled through on Thursday night.
The worst local damage was to two houses that were hit by fallen trees, according to Paul Womble, Polk County’s emergency services director. One is on Deeson Road in north Lakeland, and the other is in Mulberry.
Cleanup: Many Lakeland residents woke up to yards full of fallen branches and tree debris. Similar debris littered many neighborhood roads.
City of Lakeland crews circulated in trucks to clear some of the larger piles of fallen tree limbs.
Landfall: The Category 4 storm slammed into the Big Bend area at the sleepy town of Dekle Beach, with winds up to 140 mph. Catastrophic and historic storm surges were seen from Apalchee Bay to Venice Beach.
All of Taylor County, population 22,000, was without power within an hour of the massive storm coming ashore.
Statewide more than 1.24 million lost power during the storm, but 1.16 million of them were restored by crews that were standing by, Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news conference.
Local power outages: Lakeland Electric reported that 4,800 customers lost power at some point during the storm. At 1 p.m. today, Lakeland Electric’s outage map showed 30 outages affecting 443 customers remained. Lakeland Electric is on standby to send crews to North Florida.
During the storm, a tornado warning was issued at 6:48 p.m. when weather radar spotted a rotational motion near the Polk-Hillsborough line south of State Road 60. But officials said it quickly dissipated.
The top wind speed recorded in Polk County was 59 mph in Fort Meade, according to Jeff Foley, a spokesman for Polk County government.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
Lending a hand: Forty-five employees of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and Polk Fire Rescue left Bartow at 6:45 a.m. in a convoy headed to Perry, the county seat in Taylor County, to provide assistance.
The convoy included mobile command centers, mobile kitchen, showers, bunks, generators, water tanks, fuel trucks, a swamp buggy, boats, ATV’s, patrol cars, and ambulances.
They will provide law enforcement and assist with rescues and recovery, working in 12-hour shifts.
Hurricane Hunters: The Lakeland-based Hurricane Hunters – part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – had a bit of scare as they flew through the storm Thursday afternoon. The crew of the NOAA WP-3D, nicknamed “Kermit,” was momentarily stuck circling within the eye of the storm. NOAA’s hurricane hunters routinely fly through storms and into the eye, dropping probes that transmit data to the team.
“During their second of four eyewall passes in Hurricane Helene, the crew orbited within the eye to release a second uncrewed aircraft system for research purposes,” a statement on Facebook read. “The crew was also evaluating if landing conditions would allow a return to home base instead of point of origin. Thank you for your concern. ’Kermit’ and crew are fine.”
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