As Tropical Storm Elsa neared Florida on Tuesday, local residents were making preparations for the potential local impact.
Groups of pickup trucks, minivans and sports utility vehicles headed to the Columbia County Public Works Construction Yard on Thursday, where the county was allowing residents to fill up to 15 sandbags for the storm.
The site opened at noon on Tuesday — the storm was expected to make landfall late Tuesday night and bring winds of 45-55 mph and as much as 4-6 inches of rain with it as a tropical storm warning was issued for Columbia, Hamilton and Suwannee counties on Tuesday morning — and just an hour into opening, 510 sandbags for 34 Columbia County addresses had been given out.
Trey Johnson was at the sand pile with his mother and sister, working as a team to fill a few sandbags and get them loaded into their vehicle.
“Where we live, it floods pretty easy and we just figured we didn’t need to be buying new carpet if our house floods,” he said. “We just figured we might as well come out here, proactively, and be ready for anything that happens.
“If it (Tropical Storm Elsa) does blow over and there’s no big problem, we’ve always got it for next year — these things don’t go bad. So it’s always better to take a proactive look at these things and be ready for what happens.”
Johnson was at the sand pile for roughly 20 minutes and filled about 10 sandbags.
“It’s pretty easy… They’ve got shovels here and everything,” he said as he wiped sweat from his brow. “It’s very convenient, very community-focused and I imagine they make it very easy so there’s no muss, no fuss.”
Pastor Confesor Malade was also at the Columbia County Public Works sand pile, his T-shirt drenched in sweat as he worked on filling a few sandbags Tuesday afternoon.
He had been on site for roughly 10 minutes and got help from a young man he knew in loading the sandbags.
“He was doing them so quick, I said, ‘Lord, Thank you.’ That was a good thing,” he said, noting he showed up to get sandbags for a woman who has water that leaks into her garage and then he decided to get a few bags for himself.
Malade said thinks that a lot more people will show up to get and fill sandbags.
“It’s a lot of places in Lake City that needs some attention,” he said. “The ground is low, water backs up real easy and I see that a lot all over.”