Storm wipes out Florida sand crucial for protection, tourism

The mess Matthew made of St. Augustine on Friday improved somewhat on Saturday, as floodwaters that covered much of the historic city receded enough for residents to come home.

Sott says Florida's major utility - Florida Power & Light - told him it expected to restore power for most of its customers by Sunday evening.

Bar-Thomas has been in Florida for 17 years but she said Matthew is the biggest storm she's seen. It fell short of generating sustained winds of hurricane force anywhere in Florida, though a gust of 107 miles per hour was recorded on Cape Canaveral on Friday morning, and never made landfall in the state during its long, close passage.

The company reported that power had been restored to 725,000 homes impacted by the storm, while another 400,000 were still in the dark.

Overnight, the storm was heading toward the Georgia and SC coasts, and will remain a hurricane over the next two days as it curves north before potentially circling back south as a tropical depression over the Bahamas, forecasters said. "People are hungry. They're exhausted", Curry, appearing with Scott Saturday morning, said.

"That's what I worry about now", Scott said.

More than 1.5 million Floridians were ordered to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Matthew this week as Gov. Scott deployed 3,500 National Guard troops to assist in storm preparations.

Claim: A photograph shows Daytona International Speedway flooded during Hurricane Matthew in October 2016.

"I'm grateful that the damage wasn't worse than it is, but there's a whole lot of work to do", Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said at the news conference Saturday. Scott said in a news release Sunday it's important to get children back to their studies and noted that some kids get their only real meal at school.

At the University of Miami, classes and facilities have been canceled and closed since Thursday, and Inside Higher Ed reports Flagler College expects to be closed for several more days. Police, however, had blocked off access to Cocoa Beach Pier area because of a gas leak, one neighbor said.

Walt Disney World opened the gates to all four of its parks - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom - at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Universal Studios, SeaWorld and Legoland Florida Resort were also reopening on Saturday morning. The number represents about 4 percent of all electric customers in the state. About 1.5 million Floridians remain in evacuation zones. State officials say more than 7,000 people spent Friday night in shelters.

Brevard County beach experts say around 30 feet of sand was lost from the top of Satellite Beaches, as well as Cocoa and Indian Atlantic Beaches.