The 2026 hurricane season marks 10 years since Hurricane Matthew threatened the Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia coast with massive storm surges, flooding, and damaging winds. But the region was spared as the Category 4 hurricane was downgraded to a Category 2, and then made landfall further north.
However, extensive damage to homes and businesses still occurred, and restoration lasted for months, and in some cases, years.
But when Matthew was still a potential threat to the area, as a major storm, longtime News4JAX anchor Tom Wills made an impassioned and personal plea to viewers.
“I want to talk to you people for just a minute,” he began. “Not as Tom the newsman.”
MORE: Download & Save The Weather Authority’s Hurricane Survival Guide
After taking a moment to collect himself from rising emotions and receiving support from co-anchor Mary Baer, he continued.
“We’ve been together for 40 years, you and I,” he said to viewers. “It’s time to take precautions. It’s time to protect yourself.”
While we hoped Matthew would slow down and lose its intensity, the clock was ticking and preparation had to begin.
Ten years ago, I traveled through Duval and St. Johns County looking for people preparing for the storm.
In St. Augustine, Oasis Marina, a family-owned business, was moving boats into storage.
While there, I met Capt. Rob Johnson, who owns a fishing charter business with his wife Jodie Lynn, the namesake of their boats.
“So when we know something’s coming, it’s not avoidable, we know it’s going to be more than tropical storm force winds, and we are going to move the boat because the only safe thing you can do is move the boat,” Johnson said.
Johnson had turned to John Spires, whom he’d known since they were kids. The Spires run Oasis Marina.
“I trust them, they do a great job. They get them out of the water and the rest is up to God,” Johnson said.
It is important to get the boats out of the water. The vessels can easily collide with one another and destroy the docks as well.
On every side of town, pet shelters were packed and had to turn people away. Though some people would take their pets with them, others might not have that option if they evacuate over a long distance.
Strong storm winds and waves were depleting the coast, and escarpment lines were growing higher and higher.
Meanwhile, shelters were filling up with people living in low-lying areas or with special needs.
Emergency operations centers were watching the track of the hurricane. Matthew had already cut through the Caribbean Sea as a Category 4 hurricane, then ran parallel to Miami and then Palm Coast as a Category 3. It was still a powerful storm and close enough to the coast to do some serious damage.
On October 7, at 2 p.m., the storm moved east, downgrading to a Category 2.
Despite the decreased intensity, the storm surge was still coming. Mandatory evacuations were in effect all along the coast of Northeast Florida.
Our news crews had to figure out a way to get footage of the storm safely.
From four stories above in a parking garage, we saw Mother Nature destroy the beaches. Matthew breached the dunes and the beaches, and soon the water was going into homes.
Johnson, owner of Jodie Lynn Charters in St. Augustine, recalled the storm surge.
“When you get 100 mph winds in Salt Run, in high tide and a full moon, during Hurricane Matthew, you’re going to have a 4- to 5-foot swell, and nothing is going to sustain that for long,” Johnson said. “The main dock was underwater; it was horrible. I try to forget it.”
David Ponce owns the Conch House restaurant and marina, a family business since the 1940s.
“The water did not get over the wall. But when the wind switched and started coming in north-northeast, we get that fetch from as far as Vilano, to come straight through,” Ponce said. “I remember it was going to be expensive, it was going to be expensive.”
He remembers the damage Matthew caused to their docks.
“Matthew took out the north end. Ian took out the south, which was very strange because we never have damage from the south, and I remember I came down to the big dock, which is B Dock,” Ponce recalled. “Someone called and said, ‘I think your dock is going down the beach in the ocean.’ It had 200 foot, and then all the fingers on it.
“It was a very surreal thing. I walked up and down that dock a thousand times and all of a sudden it was gone,” said Ponce.
Several boats sank. Ponce believed the overall damage from Matthew cost about $2 million.
Places that were supposed to be a shelter from the storm were flooded as well. St. Francis House, a housing crisis center in St. Augustine, was flooded with water. The water line is still visible in the building.
Along Summerhaven, Vilano Beach, and Ponte Vedra, severe storm surge flooding produced inundation of 6 to 7 feet above ground level, causing a new inlet to be cut in the barrier island between Marineland and Matanzas Inlet.
Storm surge flooding was reported at the sea walls in St. Augustine Beach and at the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. Water heights up to 4 feet above ground level were observed in the city of St. Augustine, especially near the bayfront and the San Sebastian River.
After Matthew passed and first responders assessed the damage, the bridges were reopened, allowing residents to come back and see what had happened.
There were lessons learned.
“I think the first thing you need to do is always take preparations. And the marina here, they’re going to ask you to leave, and you should,” said Capt. Johnson. “When they say, ‘Yeah, you don’t need to have your boat at the marina,’ then you need to listen to that. You don’t need to ignore that, you need to get out of here.”