County commissioner thankful for precautions, lack of destruction
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BRANDON D. OLIVER/Palatka Daily News – A Putnam County employee works on equipment at the intersection of State Road 19 and Silver Lake Drive on Tuesday during the storm that pounded the area with rain.
Putnam County residents saw severe thunderstorms but not much damage despite a near countywide shutdown Tuesday.
The National Weather Service issued tornado and severe storm warnings for all of Putnam County, but no tornadoes in the county had been reported by 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. However, it began raining in Palatka around 3 p.m. and stormed intermittently throughout the day.
A wind advisory affected 10 counties in Florida, including Putnam, and was in place until 10 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
Putnam County, Palatka and Welaka government offices closed at noon Tuesday to prepare for the storm, with Pomona Park Town Hall closing at 1:30 p.m. The Putnam County Emergency Operations Center in Palatka opened at noon to take calls from residents reporting damage or requesting assistance, but the center closed around 6 p.m.
Board of County Commissioners Chairman Larry Harvey, who represents West Putnam, said Interlachen received its fair share of rain, but he doesn’t believe the storm made any major impacts. However, he said, the Interlachen Town Council canceled its meeting, which was supposed to be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, because of the threat of inclement weather.
Despite there not being much damage reported Tuesday evening, the commissioner is thankful government officials throughout the county took such heavy precautions.
“I think anytime we can be prudent and take care of our employees and residents, (it) is the right thing to do,” Harvey said.
There may not have been much damage, but thousands of power outages were reported Tuesday.
At 4:39 p.m., the peak of power outages, Clay Electric Cooperative reported 1,179 of its 22,349 customers were without power. At the same time, Florida Power & Light reported 1,431 of its 20,722 customers had no power.
About two hours later, the number of Clay Electric power outages decreased to 255, and FPL reported just 14, according to the companies’ outage maps.
Despite questions on social media, Memorial Bridge in Palatka did not close because of the storm. The bridge has not closed since Dec.22, 1989, when a snowstorm hit Palatka.
All municipalities are slated to reopen today, which is on track to have clear and sunny skies, according to the weather service.
The Palatka Vision Plan community meeting that was originally scheduled to take place Tuesday at Ravine Gardens State Park – but was postponed due to the storm – has been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. Jan. 23 at the former Jenkins Middle School’s multipurpose room, 1100 N. 19th St. in Palatka.
