LAKE CITY, Fla. — One of the hardest hit areas of Friday morning’s storms were west of Jacksonville in Columbia and Baker counties. At one point the power was out for more than 13,000 customers in Columbia County, nearly a third of the population.
Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for these two counties as well as Gadsden, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor and Wakulla counties.
The early morning storm was a rude wake up call for people along Country Club Road in Lake City. John Wall and his wife got a frantic call from their friend Karen Trull after a tree snapped in half and carved her home like a saw.
“It went smack dab through the middle of the house,” said Wall, “lost her living room, her kitchen, her bedroom and most of her personal items. She was luckily in a different room in her office doing some office work when it happened, she just doesn’t know how lucky she is.”
Trull’s car was also smashed by the tree. The Walls are letting their friend stay with her until her home can be repaired.
“It’s the only thing to do, she’s a friend and you have to help friends out, she can stay as long as she needs to,” said Wall.
The path from Lake City to Baker County was a theme of fallen trees on power lines. David Rewis lives north of Sanderson and spent the afternoon with a chainsaw trying to clear a tree that fell across his driveway, trapping his family on their property.
“About an hour,” said Rewis when asked how long he’d been sawing the tree blocking his driveway, ”and for the driveway several more hours and for the place, several more days, if not weeks.”
Rewis said everyone in his family is safe, and he can handle the rest.
“I’ve got a generator going, got the power going in the house, we’re good, country folk, that’s the way it is,” said Rewis.
According to an outage map by Clay Electric, nearly 2,000 people in Columbia County and 100 people in Baker County were still without power by 5pm Friday afternoon.