Worst Freeze In Years: How Much Damage?

    With temperatures dipping into the low 20’s or even lower in certain locations, North Lake County saw a weekend of frigid temperatures not seen in several years.   A hard freeze descended on the area early Sunday morning, raising concerns for area agricultural interests that had already dodged one bullet the previous weekend.
    It has been at least five years since temperatures in North Lake dipped into the teens, but at least one forest-area location reported just that early Sunday morning, when a low of 18 degrees was recorded. Elsewhere, 23-25 was a common reported low, making last Sunday morning the coldest moment in quite some time here.
    But while local yard landscapes saw damage from the cold, it appears the area’s commercial agricultural interests weathered the cold with mostly minimal damage reported early this week.
    “It was cold,” said Mike Graham of Graham Groves. Graham lost part of his peach crop from the cold, with both last weekend’s initial freeze and this weekend’s even colder weather. Graham has a peach orchard in Pittman, which was in bloom during the freeze and appears to be lost.
    “We’ll know for sure in a week, but I think it’s smoked. It got to 21 up there.”
    Graham is better off at the family’s main site, off Lake Yale Road west of Umatilla. There, peaches are yet to bloom, meaning this spring’s crop should be fine.
    The same goes for Bryan Groves Fern Division, which is in the midst of shipping fern for Valentine’s Day. Lee Bryan said the firm was able to manage the amount of ice it placed over ferns, preventing weight damage and preserving plants due to be shipped.
    “We were able to keep a lot of heat inside,” Bryan said of the practice of sealing greenhouses and running sprinklers, a practice that was aided over the weekend by low wind conditions. Additionally, keeping sprinklers running was an important part of providing a protective coating over ferns to prevent freeze damage.
    “Just keep everything running, and we did.” Bryan said.
    Employees of Atwood Farms spent the night checking pumps and making sure sprinklers provided the same protective coatings over this spring’s blueberry and strawberry crops. However, there was concern there also about making too much ice, an issue that can lead to fragile limbs snapping and compromising a crop that is already set.
    Workers at the firm’s CR 450W farm were on hand early Sunday after sunrise to hear and see the tops of plants lay over from the weight of the ice, and were left with the hope that the plants would bend, but not break. As with the peaches, it will be several days before the extent of the damage is known.
    There will be some damage to fruit already being produced. Some 'singeing' of strawberries was feared, which could negatively affect the upcoming u-pick season. The same goes for the blueberry crop, with berries themselves expected to survive the freeze due to being coated in water overnight.
    The opposite exists for citrus that remains on area trees. The quality of fruit frozen on the tree can be negatively impacted, though the weekend's cold wasn't believed to be so cold as to harm the wood of the trees, a potentially devastating situation should it occur. Florida's citrus industry is already crippled due to the impacts of citrus greening, and a tree-killing event like a freeze could conceivably wipe out what remains of North Lake citrus.
    Good news came on Tuesday, however, when Kris Sutton of Faryna Grove Care and Harvesting in Umatilla reported only light damage from the freeze.
    "We did OK. No fruit that I cut had any ice in it, and there was no split wood on the trees." Sutton did say that some early blooms for next year's crop were singed, as was some new growth.
    Area electricity providers also were on alert during the weekend. SECO Energy offered a prize drawing for its customers, with people allowed to enter to win prizes after sending in a photo of their home thermostats set at 65 degrees or lower. SECO had put out the call for its customers to preserve power availability by lowering use.
    “SECO Energy is asking its members to assist the cooperative with ensuring grid stability over the weekend,” said a release from the company. “Members are asked to lower their thermostats to 65 degrees for the duration of the event to save money, save energy, and preserve grid stability.”
    No outages were reported during the event.
    Lake County again opened its cold weather shelters, welcoming people to sites throughout the county, including at LifePointe Church in Eustis. Area businesses helped get the word out, including in downtown Eustis, where employees of Bay Pharmacy were found taping up information on shelters in areas where homeless people tend to congregate on cold nights.
    “They will come here and sleep,” said Jill Zerniak of an area near Bay Pharmacy. “It’s protected from the wind a little bit, but it is still cold and hard.”