COCOA BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) – Residents in Vero Beach and Cocoa Beach began to feel the effects of Hurricane Dorian while the storm remained stationary near Grand Bahama Island.
7News cameras captured trees swaying in the breeze along Cocoa Beach, Monday night.
Marcus Diaz, a Cocoa Beach resident, described how people in the area were feeling ahead of the storm.
“Everyone is in good spirits tonight,” Diaz said. “I don’t see people panicking. It seems like they have gone through this before, so they know what they are going to go through.”
Further south in Vero Beach, residents there felt the impacts of the then Category 4 hurricane, such as gusty winds and high surf. The weather conditions attracted crowds.
At the Vero Beach Marina, the storm caused the Intracoastal to rise and cover some docks.
“Definitely higher waves. More water rolling in,” Linda Klett said.
“Oh, the water is getting closer. It is getting higher. Oh, yeah,” Julie Lilliquist said.
At the Sebastian Inlet, a 7News drone captured rough waters and high waves battering a jetty.
Local officials said they will keep the bridges open to traffic during the storm, but they will close them after it passes to make sure they were not damaged.
One concern is that the high tide combined with the storm surge could bring the ocean up against condos that are very close to the water.
7News cameras captured businesses boarded up in preparation for the storm. They have sandbags down just in case the water comes up.
“The surf is much closer in,” resident Victor Guess said. “The winds are probably, I don’t know what these are, maybe 50 or 40 mile per hour winds. Yesterday, they were 15.”
Indian River County Sheriff’s Office deputies closed A1A along the coast because of the mandatory evacuation.
While the Space Coast waits to see what Dorian will bring, residents know it will be nothing compared to the devastation people in the Bahamas are dealing with.
“I don’t know how these people are going to recover from this, and I hope to God that we have people ready to go out there and help,” resident Bart Comstock said. “I am thinking … it’s a tragedy.”
Residents in the area are making their final preparations and anxiously waiting what Hurricane Dorian will bring.
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