Downtown was very lucky in terms of impact from Hurricane Matthew.
That was the consensus Monday as people began returning after the storm.
The predicted storm surge in the St. Johns River of up to 9 feet didn’t happen, but that didn’t mean there was no impact in the urban core.
Businesses closed (some for two days), the convention hotels evacuated as many guests as possible and an annual signature event had to be canceled.
“We couldn’t put people out on the street,” said Shawn Frisbee, general manager of the DoubleTree by Hilton Jacksonville Riverfront.
About 100 guests were able to find other accommodations but another 75 had nowhere to go, including some staff members who live at the Beaches and were under a mandatory evacuation.
“We did the best we could to evacuate our guests, and then we hunkered down in the ballroom,” said Frisbee. “We took care of our customers.”
With 960 rooms, the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront was near capacity when the evacuation order was given, said General Manager Gino Caliendo.
The hotel provided transportation to shelters, along with bottled water and box lunches.
For those guests and staff who had no place to go, Caliendo said, “We set up a safe area in the hotel for everyone to weather the storm and provided full buffets and entertainment for families, children and pets. Thankfully, everyone was safe.”
The evacuees came back to the Hyatt on Saturday afternoon after the storm passed.
“Our focus then shifted to supporting the guests who returned as well as the utility workers we are housing who are in town to help get Jacksonville back on its feet,” said Caliendo.
While there was no storm surge, he said the building had “major leaks” from wind and rain that are being mitigated this week.
Art Casey, general manager of the Lexington Hotel & Conference Center Jacksonville Riverwalk on the Southbank, said when emergency management officials on Wednesday predicted the potentially disastrous storm surge, employees started contacting guests and groups with reservations to let them know the facility would be closed.
As for the guests who were already checked in, “We told everybody to check out Thursday morning and go inland,” he said.
But 41 guests had no place to go. With the magnitude of the evacuation in Florida and Georgia, there weren’t any hotel rooms available within hundreds of miles.
Casey said he gathered the stranded guests in the lobby at 9:30 a.m. Thursday and gave them a thorough briefing about possible effects of the storm, such as hurricane-force winds, flooding and loss of electricity.
Then the stranded guests and about 15 percent of the staff weathered the storm at the Lexington.
“There was no flooding and we never lost power — thank God — and we fed them breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet-style,” said Casey.
Saturday morning, after the storm had passed, Casey said he was contacted by the Fleet Reserve Association, which was scheduled to begin checking in on Sunday for its annual national convention.
Convention organizers watched national news coverage of Hurricane Matthew’s brush with Florida and were worried about the venue and the meeting.
“They wanted to know if their rooms were available and if the banquet facilities were flooded,” Casey said.
He assured them Downtown was bouncing back quickly and the hotel was ready for their arrival. The convention began Sunday as planned.
“And I’ve got 177 rooms booked every night through the end of the week,” said Casey.
The Omni Hotel, which is on higher ground on the Northbank, didn’t evacuate but there were some cancellations due to guests being unable to arrive after all flights were canceled at Jacksonville International Airport, said Mike Islava, director of sales and marketing.
He said business the hotel lost was recaptured when residents at the Beaches and guests who were staying at oceanfront hotels came Downtown to ride out the storm.
“We had a bunch of small groups who had to cancel, but most of them are reorganizing and they’ll reschedule,” Islava said.
Early Wednesday afternoon, Downtown Vision Inc. canceled all outdoor activities associated with Art Walk: Oktoberfest.
It was a difficult decision because with the beer garden, German band and other add-ons, the October Art Walk draws about 30,000 people Downtown, more than double the attendance in other months, said Katherine Hardwick, director of marketing.
“It was very sad because that’s our biggest Art Walk of the year, but public safety comes first,” she said.
There were no reports of significant storm damage from property owners and by Monday afternoon, Downtown Ambassadors, working with city crews, had picked up more about 200 bags of debris from streets and sidewalks, she said.
The hurricane also disrupted the routine at the Jacksonville Landing.
The riverfront mall’s stores, restaurants and management office closed by 5 p.m. Thursday and remained closed Friday.
The anticipated storm surge didn’t get past the first step on the gazebo on the Riverwalk between the Landing and the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, said spokeswoman Samantha Ashcraft.
Arrangements were made with cleaning and restoration companies to arrive Saturday morning and begin repairing flood damage, but those appointments were canceled when the surge didn’t happen.
“Everyone was back in business no later than 3 p.m.,” Ashcraft said.
Other than the shutdown, the major impact of Hurricane Matthew for the Landing was the Hola Jacksonville Festival on Saturday was canceled and rescheduled for Oct. 22 and the band booked for the courtyard couldn’t get Downtown because members live on the other side of a bridge that was closed Saturday.
She shared the sentiment voiced by other Downtown business operators.
“We were really lucky,” said Ashcraft.
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