For now, Columbia County residents may resume normal Hurricane Helene debris cleanup activities and be patient in congested traffic in Lake City Thursday and Friday as South Florida evacuees find their way home.
The Suwannee Valley region dodged any adverse impacts from the overly hyped and much weaker Hurricane Milton that made landfall at Siesta Key, south of Sarasota around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as a Category 3 storm.
During approach from the Yucatan coast throughout the week, the storm had grown to a powerful Category 5 monster before weather conditions weakened the storm just before landfall.
The storm caused widespread wind and storm surge damage at the point of impact, but also spawned several devastating tornadoes across the state in Southeast Florida earlier in the day Wednesday before making landfall.
North Florida residents were on high alert, only two weeks after the Sept. 27 landfall of Hurricane Helene sent buzzsaw winds through the region. Residents prepared quickly for Milton and paused brush and tree cleanup during the new storm’s arrival Wednesday afternoon and evening.
“We’re ramping down from Milton now and we’re back to what we were doing before — the cleanup from Hurricane Helene,” said Assistant County Manager Kevin Kirby. “This cleanup could take weeks or possibly months.”
Milton brought a half-inch of rain to Lake City and one inch of rain to the Fort White area in the south end of the county, said Columbia County Emergency Management Director Shayne Morgan.
He said the strongest winds recorded during Wednesday’s storm were 21 mph sustained and that was recorded at the Emergency Operations Center in Lake City.
A few residents lost power at their homes and businesses Wednesday night, but many of those were in the southern end of the county. At the height of outages, 5% of Columbia Countians were in the dark. By late-afternoon Thursday, only .03% of the county, or only 12 customers on Florida Power and Light and Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative meters were without power.
Hundreds of staging power trucks and visiting line worker crews continued to come and go from the Florida Gateway Fairgrounds throughout Thursday.
Some trucks and their crews were stationed at overflow areas in vacant parking lots throughout Lake City as they waited for instructions as to where they were needed farther south. They walked to restaurants, grabbed snacks at convenience and box stores and saw their trucks refueled in some cases by roaming fuel trucks sent from the staging area.
“We would ask everyone moving about in traffic to realize these trucks may be traveling in a caravan with a police escort so please pay attention, they may be moving through red lights near the fairgrounds or the interstates,” Lake City Police Chief Gerald Butler said. “The big thing to remember is they are here to help. So let’s help them and really pay attention when we’re driving.”
Butler said traffic was busy, but there were no major disruptions on Wednesday night or during the day Thursday. Nothing was reported by Lake City Fire Department or Columbia County Fire Rescue.
“We’re just asking people to be patient,” Morgan said. “Be prepared to see vehicles you are not used to seeing everyday in large numbers on the streets in Lake City. There may be stoppages in traffic. Traffic may be slow at times.”
Emergency shelters and PODs
All but one Columbia County emergency shelter was closed Thursday afternoon, according to officials.
The pet-friendly shelter located in the former records building on Davis Street in downtown Lake City on the former Shands Lake Shore campus remained open on Thursday evening and had eight occupants, Morgan said, most of whom were evacuees from South Florida.
Kirby said since power was on in most areas of the county there was no need for the state-supplied emergency rations that had been requested, so the tarps, MREs, ice and bottled water were returned so they could be utilized at other Points of Distribution locations where they were needed at points further south.
County Commission Chairman Ron Williams said he was very appreciative of how everyone worked together during the crisis. The state of emergency for Hurricane Milton was lifted for Columbia County, but County Attorney Joel Foreman reminded all officials the Hurricane Helene state of emergency still remained in effect while the massive cleanup was underway.