The response to Hurricane Helene’s devastation will continue to condense today.
POD (Points of Distribution) locations and comfort stations where impacted residents can pick up supplies like water, MREs, ice and tarps in addition to getting showers will be consolidated today — one in the northern portion of Columbia County and one in the southern end. The two remaining POD locations will be at the Deep Creek Community Center and the Fort White Community Center.
Assistant County Manager Kevin Kirby, who is handling logistics for the county’s response to the Category 4 storm, said Monday that the consolidation of POD locations was following where the power companies were getting electricity restored.
The Florida National Guard will be at both locations assisting with passing out supplies. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office continues to provide security at the sites, which are open from 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. as long as people are without power.
The county also continues to utilize three shelter sites at Deep Creek, Fort White and the Richardson Community Center with a total of eight residents in those shelters: one at Deep Creek, two at Fort White and five at Richardson, four of which have special needs.
According to county officials at their Tuesday afternoon storm update meeting, all the shelter sites have plenty of ice, MREs and water and have resupply at the ready, if necessary.
The electric companies continue to make significant progress in powering homes throughout the county, which had 99% out right after the storm Friday.
According to the latest updates Tuesday afternoon, Suwannee Valley Electric has 95% of its consumers in Columbia County restored with only 99 meters remaining out in the extreme north end of the county.
Florida Power & Light has more than 97% restored with just 347 customers in the county still out of power. FPL officials said Tuesday that number may fluctuate as crews bring down the network to add others on, then bring it back up to connect more.
FPL is in the final states of its restoration efforts in the county.
Clay Electric Cooperative had more than 6,000 members without power on Tuesday afternoon, most in the extreme south end of Columbia County, in the Three Rivers and Wilson Springs area.
Troy Adams, a district manager for Clay, had previously said the power grid in that area would have to be rebuilt.
Adams said Tuesday that Clay still expects to have 98% of those customers restored by Friday night.
Jen Boyett, Comcast’s director of Government and Regulatory Affairs, Florida Region, made her first appearance at the Columbia EOC Tuesday and said the company has 25 nodes down, which translates to 6,000 customers without service as of 5 p.m. Tuesday.
She said downed lines and cut fiber optic lines were being repaired as quickly as possible.
Comcast brought in 25 extra crew members in Lake City and Live Oak on Tuesday to work on the outages.
Progress is also being made on cleaning up Columbia County roadways.
Kirby reported Tuesday afternoon only 17 roads have trees and limbs down with power lines in the way. In those locations, county crews wait on power crews to verify the lines are not hot. There were 65 locations involving power lines on Monday.
“Our crews have done a great job and a safe job and I really appreciate the work ethic and the job everyone has done,” Kirby said. “Our residents have been a big help to us, too. I think every farm tractor in the county has helped us in some way on this storm. We appreciate everyone.”
The cleanup phase is active now with eight crews working all day Tuesday picking up the “cut and toss” piles the county clearing crews have stacked on the sides of roads. That process will take weeks.
“I encourage our citizens to get their debris out there as quickly as they can,” Kirby said.
Landfill open and free to use
County residents, not contractors, may haul their organic storm debris to the county landfill and drop it off free of charge seven days per week for the next few weeks until the storm cleanup is deemed complete, Kirby said. This is a free service for Columbia County residents.
Personal debris cleanup
Individuals who clean up their own property without using a contractor may stack their organic storm debris at the edge of their property in the right of way and cleanup contractors will come by in a few weeks and pick up the debris free of charge. Kirby said if contractors leave debris, such as large logs from tree cutting, at the side of the road, the property owner will be charged the cost of hauling away the debris.