The third hurricane to impact the Suwannee Valley in 13 months brought with it unprecedented devastation.
Hurricane Helene, which made landfall Thursday night as a Category 4 storm in Taylor County, walloped Columbia County with winds as high as 112 mph at 12:22 a.m. Friday in Lake City and 120 mph in Live Oak, according to information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Helene’s wrath was felt over most of North Florida, stretching 358 miles from the center, Columbia County Emergency Management Director Shayne Morgan said Friday afternoon, following a special Columbia County Commission meeting.
“The further it came east, the stronger the impact was,” Morgan said. “This is one of the worst storms I remember and I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years.”
The eye of the storm, projected in the days and hours leading up to landfall, to go straight over or near Tallahassee, shifted eastward about three hours before landfall. The eye, according to radar, stretched from just west of Lake City to nearly Tallahassee.
That late wobble east meant increased impacts in Columbia County.
They were severe.
“I’ve been around this joint a long time,” Commission Chairman Ron Williams said. “This is the worst damage in the 40-plus years I’ve been a County Commissioner. I have not seen this type of devastation. It’s from one end of the county to the other end of the county.
“I’ve never seen this kind of devastation inside the city limits.”
That devastation inside the City of Lake City included roofs ripped off buildings on N. Marion Avenue across from the historic Columbia Bank building, as well as the roof peeled off the front of the 1st Street Music & Sound Co. building on SW Main Blvd. The Future Fitness sign along SW Main Blvd. was also toppled by the ferocious winds.
“This is the biggest one I’ve seen,” Commissioner Tim Murphy said.
Columbia County Sheriff Mark Hunter, Lake City Police Chief Gerald Butler, Columbia County Fire Chief Jeff Crawford and Lake City Fire Chief Josh Wehinger all reported no injuries from the storm.
The biggest impact was widespread power outages. Nearly the entire area of Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee counties, was dark Friday morning following the storm.
More than 99% of all customers in Columbia, Hamilton and Suwannee counties, were without power Friday morning, with only 108 of more 36,000 customers in Columbia County having power. There were just 16 people in Suwannee County and four in Hamilton County that had power.
Troy Adams, a district manager with Clay Electric Cooperative, said this is the worst he’s ever seen following a storm.
“I’ve worked as a lineman and all that and I think this is most damage I’ve seen in my 35-year period,” he said. “I’ve worked pretty much every thunderstorm, hurricane or tropical storm that we’ve had and this one, right now, seems to have the most damage than anything we’ve worked so far. It’s definitely the highest wind speeds we’ve seen…. This one definitely had the winds up there and we’re seeing the results of that now.”
A lot of those power outages are due to the amount of tree debris and devastation. County crews were still trying to assess the damage Friday afternoon.
“This is the worst tree event the county has ever seen, the worst tree event ever,” said Kevin Kirby, the assistant county manager who oversees public works. “We are still assessing the damage and don’t have all the reports in and it’s already the worst any of us have seen. It’s too much to assess on the first day.”
Emergency shelters will remain open in Columbia County due to the widespread power outage.
During the special meeting, Morgan said the special needs shelter was being moved from Westside Elementary School to Richardson Community Center and the shelter in Fort White was moving from the high school to the community center there.
Other shelters will remain open at Winfield Community Center and Deep Creek Community Center.
Some of those same sites will be utilized to provide food and supplies to those in need.
Morgan said MREs, water and other supplies would be available, once they arrive, at the Deep Creek Community Center (1193 N. U.S. Highway 441), Winfield Community Center (1324 NW Winfield St.), Richardson Community Center (255 NE Coach Anders Lane), Southside Sports Complex (1963 SW Bascom Norris), Mason City Community Center (11110 S. U.S. 441) and the Fort White Library (17700 State Road 47).
Showers, restrooms and laundry services would also be available at those locations, except for Richardson.
“All of that is in the process of coming into our county right now,” Morgan said.
State Sen. Jennifer Bradley told the commissioners and county officials that her office would help provide whatever assistance was required.
“This is not your first rodeo,” she said in referencing the previous storms that have slammed the beleaguered areas of North Florida: Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 and Hurricane Debby last month. “If there is a hiccup, if there’s something you’re not getting, just communicate with my office. We’re a team and we will work any angle we can to make sure we get the resources. I’m here to help you.
“We will rebuild together.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis also pledged support for the area earlier Friday.
“I think there’s a demoralization,” DeSantis said in a Friday morning news conference, according to the News Service of Florida. “It’s like, ‘OK, we worked all this, and then now we could potentially be worse off than we were even before.
“We’re going to have support there. It’s not easy, but we’ll get through it.”