Naples Mayor Gives Interview From Second Floor of Clearly Flooded City Hall: ‘Never In My Life… Experienced This’
The mayor of Naples, Florida, Teresa Heitmann, joined Fox News on Wednesday from the second floor of a clearly flooded city hall to discuss the “dangerous situation” unfolding in her city as hurricane Ian made landfall.
“I’ve got some friends who are down there in your fine community. They say that they’re doing all right. But looking behind you there, it looks like there is water in the yard,” began anchor John Roberts noting the flood waters behind the mayor.
“Yes, there is. I’m sitting on the second floor of City Hall and that’s our fire station out behind me. And under that is our fire battalion chief’s car and our truck,” Heitmann noted of the car half submerged in the view behind her.
“Right now, I just saw a firefighter go out on paddleboard. We are in a dangerous situation and we have people who are trying to actually get into the city,” the mayor said, adding:
We’ve had to station people at the entrances of the city and keep them out. We will impose a curfew. Fortunately, I think that we planned and tried to prepare our community for the worst. Unfortunately, there are people that are out there thinking that they want to ride it out and watch it and head to the waters.
And this is not what we are recommending. You need to stay inside. Go to the second floor. Your third floor. Don’t go to your attic. Don’t panic. Do not get in your car and try and get anywhere, as you can see. Our streets are seven, eight, eight, maybe nine.
As I’ve been sitting here waiting, looking at the waters continue to rise. Our storm surge and our high tide was set for 3:00. So we have approximately another half an hour to an hour before we will start to see this water recede.
“Wow. It’s an incredibly dangerous situation there. So as far as the onshore winds in the Naples area, that obviously puts the there the risk of the storm surge at all-time highs for you folks there in Naples,” asked Sandra Smith.
“It does. And I again, the smartest thing you can do is wait this out and wait till recovery and reentry. And then, of course, we all know what to do after a storm. We’re going to go into the mode of clean up,” the mayor replied.
“So I just am praying for our citizens and for our northern counties and cities who are actually going to be hit by that storm because you can be as prepared as you want. But I’ve lived in Florida for over 30 years and never in my life have I witnessed or experienced this,” she added, noting areas like Fort Myers to the north were getting a direct hit from the storm.
“Yeah, you’re. The previous storm surge record was four and a quarter FT set back in 2017 during Hurricane Irma. You have surpassed that by probably two feet by now and the water is still going up with the ground is saturated, Madam, mayor, it has been from all the rain that you’ve gotten there on the west coast of Florida. How long do you think it will take for the storm surge to subside? When can people come back to their homes?” followed up Roberts.
“Right now, I’m going to let the experts tell me when I can say where you can get bring people back in. But, you know, it’s probably it’ll be several hours. And we also have clean up still. So if we can get on the roads this evening before sunset and start some of the cleanups. That’s my biggest hope,” the mayor concluded.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
