Tropical Storm Colin: An early test

University of North Florida students Tabitha Bingham and Max Moneuse spent Monday kayaking and fishing on Longboat Key — literally.

The couple glided along the flooded roadways of Lyons Lane and Norton Street as Tropical Storm Colin chugged toward the Gulf Coast.

Though the storm barely grazed the region, town staff and emergency personnel said it was a good exercise for their emergency response strategy that came just six days into the six-month hurricane season. And, in the midst of what state and local emergency management officials have dubbed “hurricane amnesia,” it could serve as a warning to residents about what could happen if a larger storm were to hit the island.

“When we tell you to evacuate, we mean it,” said Public Works Director Juan Florensa. “You’ve got to go.”

He specifically noted an incident on the flooded streets of the north end — the same roads Bingham and Moneuse traversed by kayak — in which two elderly residents and a caretaker requested to be transported to higher land on Gulf of Mexico Drive where they could meet family friends to drive  them to the mainland.

Fire Chief Paul Dezzi worried an ambulance wouldn’t make it through the submerged roadway, so he contacted the Public Works Department, which provided  transport in one of its pick-up trucks. In the event of a major storm, that might not be possible.

“That was the good deed for the day,” Florensa said. “But that should show how important it is to evacuate when we tell you to evacuate.”

The fire department responded to 20 calls throughout Monday, most of which were fire alarms and downed power lines.

As fire trucks and ambulances patrolled the island and police officers and Public Works staff helped clear roadways of debris, the contractor for the mid-Key beach renourishment continued to truck sand onto the island. Instead of spreading it along the shoreline, workers stacked the new sand near dunes, waiting for the Gulf of Mexico to calm.

Florensa said he won’t know the extent of erosion damage until Friday but wasn’t worried about losing the newly placed sand.

“I will tell you we have less sand, but that’s the whole purpose of putting sand there in the first place,” Florensa said. “Because the purpose of that is to protect the mainland.”