By Mary Hladky
After sustaining minimal damage from Hurricane Matthew, Boca Raton was well on its way to returning to business as usual by midday Friday.
“We prepared for the worst and are pleased we came though it unscathed,” said Mayor Susan Haynie, who rode out the storm in the city’s Emergency Operation Center.
Residents with storm-related questions could call the Citizens Information Center at 982-4900 before and during the storm. Haynie said most of questions were about evacuation and shelter locations.
While Palm Beach County had ordered evacuations of people living in Zones A (manufactured and mobile homes) and B (barrier islands and high rises along the Intracoastal Waterway), Boca Raton did not enforce the evacuations, leaving residents free to decide for themselves whether to leave.
The closest county-operated storm shelters for Boca Raton residents were at West Boca High School and Atlantic High School in Delray Beach.
Regularly scheduled garbage pick-up resumes on Monday.
Libraries reopened at noon Friday.
All park and recreation facilities, including the Municipal Golf Course, will resume normal operating hours on Saturday. Beach parks also will reopen Saturday with lifeguards on duty.
City offices will be closed through Monday because of the Columbus Day holiday.
The National Hurricane Center dropped the hurricane warning for Boca Raton at 5 a. m. Friday and tropical storm warnings for the city were canceled at 7:57 a.m.
For many South Florida residents, the biggest problem caused by Hurricane Matthew was loss of power.
Florida Power & Light reported that as of early Friday, more than 60,000 South Florida customers remained without power. Palm Beach County fared the worst in the tri-county area, with 44,850 customers still without power.
Most Palm Beach County customers could expect power to be restored by the end of Friday, and the remainder would have power again by the end of Saturday, FPL said.
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