What Happened in St. Augustine with Hurricane Nicole?
St. Augustine is fully open after Hurricane Ian and Tropical Storm Nicole. The Nights of Lights Season will begin as scheduled on Saturday, November 19, 2022.
While homes on the beaches and in a few other neighborhoods, plus a boardwalks to the beaches, have been heavily damaged by the one-two punch of Ian and Nicole, very few businesses were heavily damaged in the downtown area.
While some of those businesses took on a bit of water, all or almost all should be fully open. For example, both the Trade Winds Tropical Lounge and Harry’s restaurant opened on Friday the 11th, despite the high water on Thursday. As an employee of the Trade Winds stated, they are “getting the hang of storm preparation,” now.
See the link “After Hurricane” below for more information.
Information from the City of St. Augustine and St. Johns County
Friday, November 11th, 2022
- St. Johns County closed the beaches to driving prior to Nicole. Pedestrians will still be able to access the beach, although they are reminded that dangerous surf and rip current activity is expected. Also, many beach walkways at Crescent Beach were comprised or destroyed during Nicole. In some area, pedestrian beach access may be available only via the places where vehicles normally have access. In order to facility assessments and clean-up, the St. Johns County has asked that people avoid those areas of the beach that were heavily damaged and where nearby property and walkways were destroyed.
Cancellations:
- There have been no announced cancellations. The Adam Sandler performance at the St. Augustine Amphitheater was changed from November 11 to November 12, 2022. The Fortunate Youth Concert at Ponte Vedra Concert Hall was changed from November 10 to November 15, 2022. The Joe Satriani scheduled for November 9 has been postponed, with no time yet decided.
After the Hurricane
St. Augustine is open for business: restaurants, tours, and events are back on track. While it may have looked bad on the news, and some neighborhoods and homes were flooded, the water downtown did not impact most of the historic district. Here are the few exceptions:
- The St. Johns County Pier checked out just fine and is fully opened.
- The St. Augustine City Marina is fully open and operating with fuel, pump outs, and reservations for moorings and dock space. They reported that no boats were damaged during Nicole. During Ian, the marina sustained damage on the break wall dock, the dock that protects the boats inside the marina. While they work to repair the dock, they have reduced the number of available slips.
- Some of the restaurants on A1A near the Bridge of Lions had a bit of water on the floors. Flooding along that section of A1A went from the Bridge of Lions to MoJo’s restaurant. We expect most businesses to be fully open within a few days, if they haven’t already.
- Fort Matanzas State Park closed due to Nicole on November 9, and have not yet reopened. had paused their ferry while they cleaned the area from vegetation that fell during the hurricane. The ferry is operating as normal, on Wednesday through Sunday.
- The boardwalk to the beach at Fort Matanzas State Park sustained damage and is closed until further notice.
- All events scheduled for the rest of November are still being held.
