Columbia County residents receive ice, food from community centers; more than 6,300 without power

COLUMBIA COUNTY, Fla. – Columbia County residents were able to get ice, water and food from the Winfield Community Center following Tropical Storm Debby.

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Winfield is one of two places people can get supplies to ride out the storm.

The other location is the Fort White Community Center.

James Wilson visited one of the ice stations set up by the county. His power came back on 20 minutes before he drove up.

“I’m doing pretty good,” Wilson said. “I just thank God that no one got hurt or anything like that and we’re just hanging on.”

Justin Brown said he learned about the ice stations on Facebook.

“Cooking was pretty tough for everybody,” Brown said. “We ran out of propane pretty quickly around here, in places that had propane, and we had a generator that couldn’t run the refrigerators and stuff. So we lost a lot of the perishable food.”

Brown said she was grateful because it was difficult to shop for groceries right after the storm.

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John Wheeler, a volunteer with the Lake City Rotary Club, said word is slowly spreading that relief supplies are available there.

“We’ve seen a good number, I’d say around 50, but we’ve got an 18-wheeler full of ice that we have to deliver to the community,” Wheeler said.

Even though some people have received electricity, the electricity is still useful while the rest of the district waits for it to come back.

“This means a lot to us because everything went down, the power was out in White Spring, we went to get a few things at the dollar store, the power was out, so we couldn’t get anything today,” Wheeler said.

He said it makes him feel good to be able to help people in need.

“It warms your heart when you can help somebody and when they’re really hungry, really thirsty and need something cold to drink, you know you’ve blessed them and that’s a good thing,” Wheeler said.

He encourages people to look out for their neighbors as storm recovery efforts continue.

“If you know someone in need, an elderly person, go check on them and ask if they need help, come get some ice or food for them,” Wheeler said.

Winfield Community Center and Deep Creek Community Center are currently open as shelters.

“So people with respiratory equipment, if they need constant power, they can come here at any time,” Wheeler said. “We’ll be open all night and all day tomorrow and probably the day after for that role.”

They plan to distribute aid again Wednesday morning and throughout the day. Columbia County’s Facebook page will have updates and for non-emergency needs you can call 386-719-7530.