State Representative Allison Tant of Tallahassee represents Madison County and parts of Jefferson and Leon. North Central Florida hasn’t recovered from Hurricane Idalia not quite a year ago, and Tant spent Sunday racing from one county’s emergency operations center to another. As she told WFSU on Sunday night, she had participated in a call that morning with the National Weather Service and the Madison County Emergency Operations Center.
Allison Tant: “…and it was a very sobering call. We still have people in Madison County whose median income is a little over $20,000 a year, living with tarps over their homes. Consequently, those tarps are going to be probably overcome with water over the next few days. That call also indicated that with this storm, there are going to be hurricane-force winds. They’re expecting – of course, you know, everything’s subject to change, right? – 80 miles per hour, 75-80, which is right there at a Category 1. They’re expecting flooding on the Withlacoochee River, which is a significant issue for Madison County. That River, when it overflows, a lot of, um…fecal matter comes with it, and so it floods the private wells.
WFSU: When we spoke last year after Hurricane Idalia, you told me about special circumstances in Madison County that …well, for instance, that the trees haven’t been subject to a hurricane…
AT: Right. Prior to Idalia, there was no written or oral history in Madison County of any wind event. And so those trees are centuries and centuries old. And because they’re that old and they haven’t been tested, they’re giant. And so when they come down, the damage is astonishing, and a volunteer group with a handsaw is just not going to be able to cut the tree into pieces and move it off – particularly private property, much less off of thoroughfares or even private property that is used for public conveyance, like EMS, fire, ambulance, all of that.
WFSU: Do I remember correctly that debris was a big problem in –
AT: Huge! And it’s already something that’s come up. I’ve been working on that today, too. Yeah, first of all, again, when you have hundred-year-old trees or more than hundred years old, centuries and centuries, old trees that are going down and they’re on the ground…I remember in Idalia, my first over to Madison was within 24 hours of the first of the storm, the debris on I-10 was so close to the side of the road, you didn’t want to swerve at all because you were going to side-swipe your car on huge trees in the emergency lane. So, it is a huge issue. And also, on those thoroughfares, in those fiscally restrained counties, they just don’t have the governmental funding to pay for that debris clean-up. Which is why the governor authorized the Department of Transportation to come in and do that last time, after Idalia. And which I think was really lifesaving for them. It was really, truly, a lifesaving, budget-saving issue for them. And then we still have debris on private property, and I know that there are charity and church groups coming in to try to help. And also there is a foundation, the Community Foundation of North Florida, has been working since Idalia to help people get some support through funding through a major donor. And they split that funding between Taylor and Madison counties. And there is a group of people, Madison Strong, a 501C3 that started up after that to help get those repairs, get that debris done. It’s a slog! I mean, this is a year. It’s difficult, because we have so many people who haven’t been made whole after Idalia knowing that we’re in for more. So, that’s where we are.
WFSU: What is their attitude after they’ve already been through this huge hit from Idalia? Now there’s something again.
AT: Well, you know, just like any of us who are living through something that was traumatic a second time. It’s difficult. On the one hand, these experts know what they’re doing, because we’ve seen this before. On the other hand, for the people who are still struggling from it, it’s daunting. It’s daunting and it’s frightening and there’s a lot of anxiety. Which is understandable.
WFSU: Representative Allison Tant of Tallahassee, good luck to you and your constituents.
