Tropical Storm — Coastal Flagler, Florida

2022-09-28 to 2022-09-30 · Coastal Flagler, Florida

Event narrative

The county experienced strong tropical storm force winds with gusts to hurricane force, flooding rainfall and storm surge inundation from Hurricane Ian.

Tropical storm force wind gusts were recorded on Wednesday evening 9/28 at 9:31 pm when then mesonet station at Marineland measured a wind gust to 55 mph. At 11:40 pm on 9/28, the same station measured a wind gust of 58 mph. At 12:50 am on Thursday 9/29, the station measured a wind gust of 64 mph and then at 4:30 am the station measured a gust to 68 mph. At 5:35 am on 9/29, a mesonet station about 1 mile ESE of Flagler Beach measured a wind gust to 59 mph. At 6:40 am, the Marineland mesonet measured a sustained wind of 66 mph with a wind gust to 71 mph. At 7:40 am on 9/29, a mesonet station 2 miles east of Palm Coast measured a wind gust of 57 mph. At 8:15 am, a mesonet station 1 miles ESE of Flagler Beach measured a wind gust of 64 mph. Later that afternoon, the Marineland mesonet station reported a wind gust of 68 mph. The highest wind gust in the county was near 80 mph measured at the Marineland WeatherStem station. Wind gusts to 80 mph started around 6:07 am on Thursday 9/29 at this location and continued through about 6:18 am, then another rainband around 7:40 to 7:49 am produced another round of wind gusts to 80 mph when the peak sustained wind at this location of 71 mph occurred at 8:05 am.

The tide gage at Pellicer Creek rose into moderate flood stage (above 1.8 ft MHHW datum) during high tide early Thursday morning. The peak storm surge inundation at this station was 4.29 ft MHHW which occurred at 2:45 pm on 9/29. Major flooding begins at this location at 3.3 ft MHHW. The stage measured with Ian was just below the record for this station which was 4.34 ft MHHW set in 2017 by Hurricane Irma. By 4:30 pm, the emergency manager reported storm surge inundation at Marineland where surge flooding Whitney Lab buildings. The Flagler Beach pier was severely damaged by storm surge.

The river gage at Haw Creek above Russell Landing rose into major flood stage (above 6 ft NAVD88 datum) around 10:55 am on Thursday 9/29. Most of this rise was due to excessive rainfall. On Friday morning 9/30 around 10:15 am, the gage rose above 8.0 ft NAVD88 datum which is above record for this location. The record of 8.0 ft was previously set in 2017 with Hurricane Irma. The Haw Creek gage continued to rise to a new record level of 8.67 ft through Sunday 10/2 as drainage from record rainfall across central FL drained northward.

On Friday 9/30 at 10:50 am, and NWS employee reported extensive coastal flooding occurred on South Flagler Avenue and South 23rd Street in Flagler Beach. The roadway was impassable. This flooding was total water flooding from storm surge, high tides and heavy rainfall. At 11:45 am, emergency management reported about 2 feet of flood water from Dead Lake into the Bull Creek Fish Camp. At 5:43 pm, the Flagler Beach Fire Rescue reported one rescue about 1 mile SSE of Flagler Beach where a home was flooding along South Flagler Avenue due to tidal flooding in the wake of Ian. There was significant tidal flooding near South 23rd Street in Flagler Beach.

On 10/1, the emergency manager reported tidal flooding at 1730 along South Flagler Ave at South 23rd Street, but a bit lower than previous tide. Water flooded the Bull Creek Restaurant at the end of CR 2006 at St. Johns Park. There was about 2 feet of water in the building that flooded from Dead Lake / Haw Creek.

Rainfall flooding caused extensive damage. At 8:03 am on 9/29, an amateur radio operator reported flooding on SR-100 west of the State Road 100 overpass. There was about 6-12 inches of water covering the road. At 8:05 am, the emergency manager reported street flooding along Burroughs Drive and Buffalo Grove Place near Belle Terre Parkway. Streets were impassable in the area due to flood water. By 12:13 pm, a public reported indicated widespread flash flooding about 3 miles north of Palm Coast.

Heavy rainfall and surge combined to produce widespread total water flooding across the county at the following locations: State Road 100 Bridge eastbound was closed until further notice; flooding of Marineland at the county border due to a dune breach; Moody Boat Launch in Flagler Beach; Surfside Estates in Beverly Beach; MalaCompra Canal; Bings Landing; Sea Trail near Sea Breeze in Palm Coast; and State Road 100 from the Flagler Government Center to the Post Office in Bunnell.

Significant dune erosion occurred at the following locations: Jungle Hut Road beach access; 16th Road Old Salt Park; MalaCompra Road beach access; State Road A1A at 21st Street South; State Road A1A at 26th Street South; the beach access ramp at State Road 100 and State Road A1A; dune over-wash at Washington Oaks State Gardens; and dune over-wash on State Road A1A from South 16th to South 10th in Flagler Beach.

This will come with coastal, Intracoastal, Crescent Lake and Dead Lake area flooding for a few more tide cycles that may impact homes.

Rainfall totals between 9/28 and 9/30 ranged from a maximum of 15.0 inches at the City of Bunnell Waste Water Plant to 6.0 inches at the Palm Coast Library. Most measured rainfall ranged between 8 and 11 inches.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Ian made landfall as a powerful Category 4 Hurricane on the SW Florida peninsula coast near Punta Gorda on Wednesday, September 28th. The center tracked NE across south-central FL, north of Lake Okeechobee through Wednesday Night and then moved offshore of the central FL Atlantic coast Thursday Morning, September 29th, just near Cape Canaveral as a Tropical Storm. Ian regained Category 1 Hurricane Strength offshore of the northeast Florida Atlantic coast as it tracked NNE into Thursday Night and Friday morning as it made landfall along the South Carolina Atlantic coast. Locally, a strong nor'easter developed through the day Wednesday, September 28th, as a front lifted northward up the FL peninsula ahead of Ian. Tropical Storm force winds and bands of rainfall started to impact northeast Florida through the day Wednesday, the peak in local winds through the day Thursday as Ian's center tracked northward and offshore of the local Atlantic coast. Water levels increased within the St. Johns River basin Wednesday due to the strong nor'easter and annually high spring tides already created water level departures of 0.5 to 1 ft MHHW datum prior to the nor'easter further 'charging' the St. Johns River basin. The peak storm surge along the local Atlantic coast occurred Thursday, then the peak surge pressed into the St. Johns River basin Thursday night into Friday morning. Major to moderate tidal flooding continued into the weekend especially for Putnam, St. Johns and Flagler counties where trapped tides and northerly flow caused extended tidal flooding. Record setting rainfall occurred across the headwaters of the St. Johns River across east-central Florida, and water levels increased the week after Ian passed as the St. Johns River drains south to north, which was also leading up to the peak Spring tides between Oct 8th through Oct 11th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1051065. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.