The final emergency shelters in Columbia County after Hurricane Helene closed Wednesday night.
Supply distributions are also completed and comfort stations will be relegated to just Fort White after today.
During the County Commission’s regular meeting Thursday morning, County Manager David Kraus informed the commission that there were no longer any people staying at any of the shelters in the county, leading to them being closed Wednesday.
“It’s not that we want anyone to be homeless,” Kraus said. “It’s not that we want to turn anybody away. There was no one to shelter.”
Assistant County Manager Kevin Kirby, who has been in charge of the logistics involving the county’s response effort to the Category 4 storm, also added that the comfort station at the Deep Creek Community Center would be shutting down Thursday night. The comfort stations are sites where residents impacted by the storm and still without power can take showers, use the restroom and also do laundry.
Comfort stations would remain open in Fort White at the community center and library “until further notice,” Kirby said.
The comfort stations are winding down as the utility companies are nearly full restoration of power within the county. As of Thursday afternoon, Florida Power & Light was down to just 3 customers without power, while Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative has only 22 members out in the north end of the county and Clay Electric Cooperative was down to 373 members out in the south end.