Gulf schools close Thursday, outages continue
Most Gulf County residents went to bed Tuesday night in warm houses but many of them awoke to cold ones, as a storm marked by freezing temperatures and sleet took out power lines.
Citing hazardous road conditions and freezing temperatures, Superintendent Jim Norton announced just before 8 a.m. ET that schools would remain closedd on Thursday.’
He would later share in an email that schools plan to reopen on Friday.
“While out and about checking on our facilities this morning, I am in absolute awe of the beautiful white blanket that covered our area yesterday and through the night last night,” he wrote. “Whether you were able to experience the snowflakes and build your own snowman, or you awakened to a covering of ice …. the beauty truly is breathtaking!
“Temperatures are forecasted to drop into the teens tonight, so black ice will continue to be a problem on our roadways and bridges tomorrow,” Norton wrote.
Crews brought in by Duke Energy from as far as Inverness, Ocala and Milton streamed in beginning early morning, and began the task of restoring power to thousands of homes in Gulf County,
Duke officials hope to have power restored to the entire county no later than 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
By 2:50 p.m. Wednesday, the crews had whittled down the number of customers affected by outages to about 616, based on 23 active power outages.
As of then, there remained 173 Duke customers on Cape San Blas without power, and another 339 in Indian Pass and 104 in the Port St. Joe area..
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.