Hurricane Hermine devastated Tallahassee’s electric grid, but officials say the storm didn’t breed clouds of disease carrying mosquitoes.
Hurricane Hermine wrecked Tallahassee's electric grid, but officials say they are not being flooded with mosquito complaints.
Leon County spokesman Mathieu Cavell says there hasn’t been a major increase in complaints. But he says residents still need to take the Zika virus threat seriously.
“If neighbors and home owners get out and maintain their property, and dump any standing water in things like bird baths and flower pots, then they can make a big, big difference in the mosquito population that would be able to transmit Zika.”
Cavell says there have been no confirmed sightings of Zika’s primary carrier, Aedes aegypti, which is not common in Tallahassee. But he says some local species pose a threat. Hurricane Hermine brought four to five inches of rain, much less than the prediction of eight to nine inches.
