60-year-old windsurfer ID’d as Florida officials report second Hurricane Idalia death
The death of a 60-year-old man who drowned while windsurfing is Florida’s second reported fatality linked to Hurricane Idalia, state officials announced Wednesday.
The death attributed to Idalia — the first major hurricane to hit Florida’s Big Bend, also known as the “Nature Coast,” in more than 125 years — occurred in Brevard County, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said in a news release.
Idalia made landfall on the morning of Aug. 30, causing widespread flooding, life-threatening storm surge and power outages through the region.
Greggory Johnston was riding on a sailboard near the area of Kelly Park in Brevard’s Merritt Island on Aug. 30 when he disappeared, the local sheriff’s office said at the time. Deputies started searching for him around 7 p.m. after finding the man’s vehicle at the park — spotting his board and windsurfing sail the next morning.
The body of the Merritt Island resident was found Friday, Deputy Sheriff Tod Goodyear, a spokesman with the Brevard Sheriff’s Office, told the Miami Herald on Wednesday.
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The first death that state officials linked to Idalia happened in Alachua County.
There, the medical examiner reported to the state that a 59-year-old Gainesville resident died after his vehicle “left the runway and struck a tree,” Gretl Plessinger, an FDLE spokeswoman, detailed to the Herald.
According to Florida Highway Patrol, a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was traveling westbound on State Road 20, just east of Southeast 60th Ter., when it veered into a ditch during “extremely rainy conditions.”
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“The Toyota continued through the ditch until it crashed into the nearby tree line,” highway patrol said. “The Alachua County Fire Rescue arrived on the scene and declared the driver of the Toyota deceased.”
This story was originally published September 6, 2023 at 9:23 PM.
