8 ways Hurricane Irma was worse than Hurricane Matthew in Brevard (2024)

They were two storms, major hurricanes that had threatened to hit Brevard County head-on. Late turns spared the Space Coast from the worst of either storm, but both battered Brevard with tropical-storm-force winds with some hurricane-force gusts.

So, if Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Irma hit Brevard with similar winds, why was the damage so much worse from Irma?

• According to Brevard Emergency Management director Kimberly Prosser, more than 7,100 structures in the county sustained some level of damage from Irma vs. about 1,650 from Matthew.

• Every single FP&L customer in Brevard lost power at some point during Irma, and it took twice as long to completely restore power in the county.

• Initial estimates are that Irma left some 600,000 cubic yards of debris around the county. Initial debris estimates for Matthew were 300,000 cubic yards, though some 820,000 cubic yards were eventually picked up. The total debris from Irma could easily surpass that total, as more detailed damage assessments are done.

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• Irma led to more than 12,000 calls to the county’s 2-1-1 system seeking information about storm preparations, shelters, FEMA assistance and the like, Prosser said. For Matthew, there were 4,352 calls.

Of course, Hurricane Irma, with its track up the length of the state, was a historic storm that impacted Florida in ways no other recorded storm has, touching nearly every nook and cranny of the peninsula.

And while Irma and Matthew produced similar winds in Brevard, there were three major differences between the two here. First, Irma spawned at least seven tornadoes here. Second, Irma dumped about three times as much water on the county than Matthew did. And, finally, while Irma and Matthew had similar wind speeds on the Space Coast, Irma’s lasted far longer and reached the entire county, while Matthew’s strongest winds were for the most part restricted to the beachside areas.

Scott Spratt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Melbourne who is overseeeing damage assessments for a 10-county area, said Brevard saw tropical storm force winds – 39 mph and higher – for between 18 and 24 hours rather than just for a few hours during Matthew. The county saw 8-10 hours of damaging winds of 55-70 mph, Spratt said.

Below are some the ways Irma walloped Brevard more than Matthew did.

Electricity

Every one of FP&L’s 307,000 customers in Brevard was without power for some period of time, compared with about 238,000 in Matthew.

The impact statewide was more dramatic. Across Florida, some 4.4 million FP&L customers lost power because of Irma vs. just 1.2 million during Matthew.

After Matthew, about half of those who lost power in Brevard had electricity back within two days and all but a handful had it back within five days. After Irma, it took four days to restore power to half those who lost it in Brevard and 10 to restore power to all but a handful.

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Bryan Garner, an FP&L spokesman, said the “hardening” the company has done in recent years — such as replacing wooden poles with concrete and the introduction of smart meters — meant the damage to the company’s electrical grid was far less than it would have otherwise been.

Still, hardening the grid can’t prevent wind-driven debris from knocking down power lines.

“What you can’t do is stop trees blowing into lines,” Garner said.

Trees down vs. limbs down

While Matthew ripped thousands of limbs from trees around the county, Irma completely uprooted far more trees. The likely cause: The longer sustained winds, combined with heavy rains, which loosened soil.

Most at risk were trees with large canopies, which can act like sails under heavy winds.

Brown trees

Within days, leaves on trees and shrubs around the county began to turn brown and wither, something that didn’t happen after Matthew.

The likely cause was stress caused by sustained high winds, said Sally Scalera, horticulture agent with the Brevard County Extension Service. Those winds dried out the foliage to the point of death, she said.

Scalera writes a monthly gardening column for FLORIDA TODAY.

The good news, she added, is that plants shed dead leaves, and that has already begun to happen. Most plants will rebound.

Tap water

More than 82,000 Cocoa Utilities customers lost water service during Irma. Flooding made it tricky to spot some of the estimated 35 water main breaks, and regulations require boil water notices to stay in effect at least two days after running water is restored, to lower risks of bacteria in the water. By comparison, Hurricane Matthew caused 21 water main breaks to Cocoa’s water system last year.

Cocoa officials decided against isolating the water system to the barrier islands, to protect the integrity of the mainland water system, as the city had done last year during Hurricane Matthew.

There are not set decision making points that dictate whether or not the city isolates the water system to the barrier islands, Cocoa officials said. The decision is made based on the path, intensity, wind speed, and other factors of the storm, city officials said, and based on whether it’s safe for workers to be able to physically isolate the system.

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Irma’s path showed the storm following the west coast of Florida and the Space Coast seeing tropical storm force winds, so city officials decided not to isolate the system. By the time the storm jogged farther east toward Central Florida, it was too late to safely send workers out to isolate the system due to dangerous wind conditions, city officials said

The city of Melbourne did not suffer long-term outages but had asked homeowners to conserve water after Irma stirred up sediments in Lake Washington – the city’s main source of drinking water – so much so that the city struggled to treat enough water to meet demand.

No similar disruption of service occurred after Hurricane Matthew, though some areas did have boil-water alerts.

Flooding

While Hurricane Matthew caused extensive flooding north of Brevard, that was not the case here.

Irma however, which dropped as much as 15 inches of rain on the Space Coast in less than 48 hours, did cause extensive flooding in parts of the county, some of which remained under water for a week after Irma passed. That potentially contributed to the water main breaks and also overwhelmed some sewer lift stations.

Beach erosion

The potential cost of restoring the Space Coast beaches affected by Irma is $10.8 million to $15.8 million. That compares with $26.8 million in beach damage during Hurricane Matthew.

The difference is that the eye of Matthew was just east of the Space Coast shoreline as the storm moved north, and the damaging winds were coming into the coast. Irma’s eye was west of Brevard, and the wind direction generally was going away from shore.

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“It was all about the wind direction,” said Mike McGarry, beach project coordinator for Brevard County’s Natural Resources Management Department.

Because the storm was moving from south to north as opposed to east to west, there was relatively little storm surge, Spratt said, which also limited beach erosion.

Schools

Brevard Public Schools were closed for seven days because of Irma vs. just three days for Matthew. The lack of power and water forced BPS to delay school re-openings after Irma passed.

Gas shortages

With Irma first projected to make landfall near Miami, hundreds of thousands of residents of Florida’s East Coast headed north and west to places like Tampa. But when the track shifted west and took aim at the area between Naples and Tampa, all those evacuees –fled again. The mass movement of people, called the largest evacuation in U.S. history, led to gas shortages and long lines at the pump in Brevard and around the state.

Irma also damaged a number of beachside gas stations. Four days after the storm passed, there was only place on SR A1A between Patrick Air Force Base and the Indian River County line that offered full service at the pump with unleaded, super unleaded and diesel, according to Gasbuddy.com's gas tracker.

Dave Berman and Jim Waymer contributed to this report.

Contact McCarthy at 321-752-5018

or jmccarthy@floridatoday.com.

Twitter: @journalistjohnm