Ice, ice, and more ice, baby

It wasn’t technically the storm of the century but in most people’s lives in Franklin and Gulf counties, it might as well have been.

While the record in late January is 9 degrees set in 1985, for three days last week, highlighted by temperatures in the low 20s, schools and businesses throughout the Forgotten Coast closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, as a mix of ice and sleet blanketed both counties.

In Wewahitchka, there were snowball fights, but the worst effect was the freezing of portions of the dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS), a ventilation system that supplies conditioned outdoor air to the Wewahitchka High School building and helps reduce heating and cooling loads. 

Superintendent Jim Norton said that a 7 a.m. check Thursday by maintenance officials at the high school revealed no problems, but by about 1 p.m., Principal Karen Shiver and her colleagues noticed water pouring from the ceiling, as a frozen line in the DOAS system had melted and water was now pouring on the floor.

Norton said he considered closing just Wewa High School on Friday, but after hearing from the basketball team, which was practicing in the gym, how a gigantic chunk of ice had fallen from the Port St. Joe High School roof, he decided to put safety first and close both schools on Friday.

“I’d call it a sleet and ice event,” said Matt Herring, Gulf County’s emergency management director. “The north end of the county got some snow. My kids built a ‘snowman’ in my yard.”

He said there were three inches of snow at Stone Mill Creek.

“This is an unprecedented event for North Florida,” Herring said. “I’ve seen it twice in my life and that’s in 52 years.”

He said that the Florida Department of Transportation sprayed the bridges with a deicing collusion before and during the storm.

The worst effects of what the nation calls Winter Storm Enzo were felt by power outages in both counties, which struck more than half the homes on Wednesday.

Duke Energy brought in crews from as far as Milton and Ocala, and by nightfall on Wednesday, nearly all the power in both counties had been restored.  

Both Herring, and Franklin County Emergency Management Director Jennifer Daniels reported no storm-related injuries or deaths.

“We appreciate the public staying off the roads,” Herring said.

Port St. Joe Police Chief Jake Richards ordered the Highland View Bridge closed on Tuesday evening, Jan. 21 about 9 p.m. but it was reopened by Wednesday morning.

The snow and ice lingered a couple days but by the weekend it was rarely seen except for small chunks off to the side of the bridges.

Neither county opened a warm weather shelter. 

Pat Hardman, with the Coastal Community Association of Gulf County, pushed for officials to open up shelters in that county. “Our temperatures are in the 20s and will get above freezing for a little while but then as cold or colder temperatures for tonight,” she wrote commissioners. “Even though the BOCC chose not to address the problem last night, surely the county and city are going to open cold night shelters today and tomorrow.  It is the only humane solution the county has to address the immediate danger for many elderly and folks without power or heat throughout the county. “

Herring and Daniels said that while opening such shelters could have been done, residents usually prefer to remain at home. 

“The safest place for people is their home,” he said. “People want to stay home.”

They also stressed that their departments maintain a special needs list, and will make arrangements for those people who are dependent on power or have other conditions provided their names are on the list, which can be done by the respective offices.

Daniels said one resident whose name was on the special needs list was relocated ahead of the storm.

Herring said that in Gulf’s eight-county region, only two counties opened warming stations and that anyone calling in would have been referred to Bay County. He said in Wakulla, the station was open for eight daylight hours due to the outages.

Herring said that two churches in Port St. Joe made room available for those who sought warmth.

Both Daniels and Herring said there were no house fires, although he noted that a power line that fell on a tree limb from the ice started a grass fire that was soon extinguished.