Duval County lifts local state of emergency after Hurricane Helene; DCPS schools to reopen Monday

JEA is now in Phase 2 of restoration, which means crews are making repairs by electric “circuits.” (Copyright 2024 by WJXT News4JAX - All rights reserved.)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Duval County Emergency Operations Center is now partially activated, and the local state of emergency was lifted Saturday at 8 a.m. after Hurricane Helene.

Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said Friday that Hurricane Helene impacted the city in different ways including widespread outages, isolated flooding, and downed trees and powerlines.

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“All things considered, we were fortunate compared to the Big Bend, but we did have a tough night,” Deegan said during a news conference Friday morning.

RELATED | JEA ‘making great progress’ with power restoration as crews continue to work on Helene’s aftermath: Mayor

As of Saturday afternoon, there were still 14,280 JEA customers without power, according to the outage map. Since the beginning of the storm, crews have restored power to 267,972 customers.

JEA is now in Phase 2 of restoration, which means crews are making repairs by electric “circuits.” According to JEA, repairing an entire circuit could restore power to about 2,500 homes before moving on to another circuit.

JEA said the final restoration may continue through early next week.

According to the city, crews were still working on cleaning up downed trees and working on closing traffic signal tickets.

MORE | Gov. DeSantis: Helene death toll in Florida rises to 11; more than 400,000 still without power

Government offices will reopen on Monday.

Duval County Public Schools officials said schools will reopen as normal on Monday, Sept. 30.

The Legends Center closed down shelter operations Saturday at 8 a.m. which means all five city shelters are now closed.

All 20 Jacksonville Public Library locations are open on Saturday.

JEA customers can report outages through jea.com/outage.

To request a storm-related service or report a problem residents can call 630-CITY until 12 p.m. Saturday. The line will resume normal business hours on Monday, Sept. 30.

People can still request a city service online anytime through this website.


About the Author

Marcela joined News4JAX in 2023. She grew up in Mexico and eventually moved to California to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist. Now, she is a proud San Diego State University alumna who has many years of experience in TV and digital journalism.

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