No power, heat leading residents on hunt for relief in storm recovery
With thousands of residents reeling from Hurricane Helene — plunged into darkness with no power, no ice and limited access to fresh water and food, the county stepped up its resource distributions, providing the commodities at several community centers on Sunday.
There were two semi trucks with ice at the Fort White Community Center, as well as a semi truck with ice at Mason City, Lulu and the Southside Sports Complex. There was even a guy, who only spoke French, that delivered 1,000 pounds of ice in his Honda Pilot to the Deep Creek Community Center.
The only English phrase he spoke there was: “I got ice.”
Attempting to bridge the language barrier, Susan Kroh, working as shelter support staff, along with Columbia County Sheriffs Deputy Brian Rix, and an Army National Guard soldier, used Google Translator attempting to communicate with the driver.
When those efforts failed, the shelter support staff called their bosses at the Emergency Operation Center to find out where the ice was supposed to be.
After carrying a few bags inside, limited space prevented the entire load of ice from being properly housed and the remainder was placed on a tarp for residents who happened to visit and wanted ice.
About 40 minutes later a truck carrying ice chests arrived, providing a refrigerated machine where the ice could be stored properly.
The driver said Deep Creek was his first stop, but he had other stops scheduled for Winfield Community Center, Southside Sports Complex, Lulu Community Center, Mason City Community Center and Fort White Community Center.
Earlier in the day, ice distribution went off without a hitch at Southside Sports Complex where truck driver Sam Lagat opened the double doors to the trailer and stacked the ice for residents who approached the vehicle.
Tony Humphreys and Tony Dale, who live in a neighborhood off State Road 47, arrived at the Southside Sports Complex just after lunchtime in a pickup truck with two coolers in the bed of the truck. The two said they had been riding around town looking for ice when they heard there was ice at the sports complex.
“It’s hot and we need some ice. We got a lot of kids at home,” Humphreys said. “Plus we’re going to pass a few bags out to the neighbors.”
“We got a lot of work, a lot of tore down trees and we need something,” Dale added. “We looked around — everybody else was out of ice, even the stores. This will keep us cooled down as much as possible when we’re thirsty from all this cleanup.”
Jason Futch pulled up moments after Humphreys and Dale left, looking for ice and food.
“This ice will definitely help, that’s for sure,” he said. “We just got our power back on, but our refrigerator is a total loss. We have no food in there right now, so we’re definitely going to have to restock and get some help with that. It will definitely be a little bit of a struggle, but we’ll get there. We’re looking for some MREs right now.”