Gov. Scott tours hurricane damage along SJC beaches

Governor thanks people who helped during Hurricane Irma

VILANO BEACH, Fla. – Gov. Rick Scott and other state officials spent Thursday morning in St. Johns County, looking beach erosion and oceanfront homes destroyed when Hurricane Irma move through Florida early last week.

Scott spent the morning checking out damage along the coast, including beach erosion and structural damage.

He saw one home in Vilano Beach that toppled over and toured parts of the beach that were scraped away by Irma.

He stopped along the want to shake hands with people who helped out during the hurricane.

From first responders to emergency management, he expressed his gratitude.

"Everybody worked hard to try to keep everybody safe," Scott said. "I mean, there’s so many people took care of individuals, whether they helped open up shelters, they rescued people who were in trouble,that kept our highways open."

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection said we knew what we needed to do before the storm and are already working to protect our critical areas continues.

"We have now more than 2,300 dump-truck loads of sand like you see behind us armoring those spots to before the storm," Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Noah Valenstein said. "Now (they will) protect us from high water events afterwards, as more storms could potentially threaten Florida."

Scott said the state and community needs to work together to pick up, bring the beaches back, get our economy going, and most importantly, stay vigilant. 

"We’re in hurricane season. We don't want a lot of debris around the state. We got to make sure all the debris is (gone) because, if we have another storm, that debris is going to impact our ability to keep our power on, and on top of that, it's a health issue," Scott said.

Scott also reminded Floridians that they should be restocking their supplies and preparing should another hurricane come our way before the season ends in November.