Bryce Lay isn’t taking any chances. The Lake City resident spent some of Monday afternoon stockpiling four large sheets of plywood on his trip to the local Home Depot, getting ready to board up windows in preparation for Hurricane Ian’s arrival. His two daughters, Kennedy and Kendall, haven’t experienced a major hurricane passing through since the remnants of Category 1 Hurricane Irma wrecked havoc on Columbia County in 2017.
“Just to cover windows,” Lay said of the plywood. “Hopefully we won’t need it, but I don’t know if there’s going to be a mass of people that come to buy the stuff.”
That attitude was a popular one among hurricane prep shoppers Monday afternoon as residents continue to get updates on Ian’s path eastward toward north central Florida. In fact, Columbia County Emergency Management Director Shayne Morgan said Monday that folks should assume the worst with Ian.
“If the storm continues to barrel right toward us, we need to be prepared for the absolute worst case scenario,” Morgan said. “People need to have a plan, know where to go if you have to leave your home. Have cash on hand, all necessary medicines, your important papers, things like this. Right now, you have the opportunity to do all these things.”
Help will be available today for those looking to make some preparations for the storm as well. Columbia County will have three sites open, starting at 7 a.m., for residents to pick up sandbags until 7 p.m. The three locations are:
n Columbia County Public Works, 607 NW Quinten St., Lake City;
n Southside Sports Complex, 1963 SW Bascom Norris Dr., Lake City; and
n Ft. White Community Center, 17579 FL-47, Fort White.
There is a 15 sandbag limit per vehicle. Residents are responsible for filling sandbags. However, elderly and special needs assistance will be available.
The City of Lake City will also hand out sandbags to residents, starting today, at its Public Works Department, 180 NE Gumswamp Road. City residents may pick up as many as 10 bags per vehicle from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In Live Oak, the Live Oak Fire Department has sand available to sandbags as well at its station, 200 Duval Street NE.
Sandbags are also available in Lafayette County at the Mayo Community Center, 138 SW Community Circle. The self-fill station has a 25-bag per household limit.
Charlie Tritt, a Lake City resident who went to Home Depot to get a new power generator, said he wasn’t taking any chances with the hurricane.
“Looks like we might be losing some power, so I’m picking this up,” Tritt said. “We might pick up a couple more things. We’re pretty much already stocked up on food, things like that, and water. We’ll be buying some more gas for the generator now.”
Shoppers aren’t the only ones getting ready for what could be a two-day shopping spree ahead of Ian’s projected landfall Thursday. The Aldi grocery store at U.S. Highway 90 and State Road 247 had already posted a sign Monday afternoon asking customers to limit bottled water purchases to two cases each.
Morgan said the mood Monday of CCEM personnel was typical of early storm preparation.
“People are anxious, but it’s always a waiting game with a hurricane,” Morgan said. “Let’s watch it and see the direction it takes. Once we see the direction, and we’re prepared, we have a better idea of what to expect.”
Both Columbia County and Lake City officials are scheduled to meet this morning in emergency meetings to declare local states of emergencies. The County Commission is meeting at 9 a.m., while the Lake City Council is meeting at 9:30 a.m. Suwannee County’s commission declared a state of emergency on Monday in a meeting that lasted less than a minute.
The Columbia County Schools announced Monday afternoon that its schools would go to virtual learning on Wednesday and be closed Thursday and Friday.
Florida Gateway College also announced Monday that it was closing campus Thursday through Sunday with all classes, activities and events canceled or postponed. The closure includes all offices, residence halls and satellite locations. Saint Leo University, including its Lake City Education Center, switched to virtual instruction beginning Monday and lasting through Friday.
At the Publix across U.S. Highway 90, the parking lot was full of folks looking to prepare for the hurricane. Yvonne Demuth said she flew in from North Carolina Monday morning to help her 93-year-old mother, Jeanette Justice, with a couple of cases of water as well as a few gallon jugs. Demuth said she’s quite familiar with Florida hurricane season just based on her family’s experiences and wanted to help out before her son made the evacuation from Tampa to Lake City. For Justice, it was just another hurricane season prep time.
“I was born in Florida, so I’ve dealt with hurricanes just about all my life,” Justice said, noting she lost power for about two weeks back in 2017 in the aftermath of Irma.
Demuth agreed with her mother, saying that outside of taking care of her two dogs, she didn’t have a lot to fret over.
“I think when you’re 93, you don’t worry about much anymore,” Demuth said.
Leiann Collins, a resident of Fort White who originally came from Clearwater, also said she was planning to wait out the storm at home. She’d also gotten a few cases of water along with a couple of gallon jugs as well. While she was unsure whether the hurricane would be as threatening as it appears, her biggest concern is about the potential of losing power again.
“Just losing the power is the big thing for us,” Collins said. “But otherwise, (we’re) not really (worried).”