Zeta packs a punch

By Jeff Byrd

Editor

Hurricane Zeta packed a powerful punch to Thomasville on the night of October 28 and into the morning of October 29.

Zeta entered the U.S. as a Category 2 hurricane at Cocodrie in Terrebonne Parish, La.

By the time it crossed the Mississippi/Alabama state line, it was still a Category 1 hurricane.

It came into Thomasville, a little after 11 p.m. It rocked and rolled for more than an hour, delivering hurricane force winds of up to 75 miles per hour in downtown. There were at least three gusts of about 85 to 90 miles per hour, officials estimate.

The devastation when the sun broke was apparent.

“Ivan was really bad and this was worse than Ivan,” Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day said. “We have damage all over the city and all over Clarke County.”

Zeta left nearly every road in Clarke County blocked with downed trees. Power was out in the entire county. As of today, Nov. 5, some areas in the county are still without power.

At its height, more than 670,000 electric customers lost their power said Alabama Emergency Management Director Col. Brian Hastings. Hastings visited Thomasville Monday afternoon to assess the damage. Much of the power within the city had been restored and tons of debris had been cleared by City of Thomasville work crews. The crews began working four hours after the storm departed the area.

“Did this surprise me, no, because you always try to prepare for the worse and hope for the best. Most people, however, like nothing bad will happen. But what we had here was a fast moving Cat 1 or Cat 2 that entered Louisiana and left in Delaware. It left its mark across the United States. Until you feel, it’s hard to grasp the magnitude of a storm like this,” Hastings said.

“We got hit hard,” Day said. “There is heavy damage in a lot of areas.”

There were six deaths associated to Zeta, and one was in Clarke County.

Billy Watkins, 44, of the Morvin area on Bashi Road, was killed when a tree fell through his mobile home. Watkins was a Thomasville native. The other deaths were in Louisiana and one in Biloxi where a vehicle was caught by the 10-foot storm surge in the parking lot of the Golden Nugget Casino.

Robert Lewis Herron has been a Thomasville resident for more than 50 years and has worked many a hurricane while working for Alabama Power.

“Buddy, we got hit in the mouth with this one,” he said of Zeta.

Ricky Wells, another former Alabama Power worker, had the chain saw out cutting up limbs from his Old Highway 5 home. The house across the street had a big tree fall on it.

“This hurricane reminds me of Hurricane Frederick (from 1979),” Wells said. “That one had a lot of wind damage. This one did about the same or more.”

Hastings has only been the state director for three years, so can not compare storms, did say this was a bad one.

“Some equate this to Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Ivan,” Hastings. “This was worse than Ivan,” Day interjected.

“Just the sheer number of power poles down can tell you how bad,” Hastings continued. “We had a winter storm called the El Doracho in 2018 and that left a lot without power. Here, it was 670,000. As of (Monday) we were down to 75,000. I’ve been meeting with mayors throughout the region and trying to get our Emergency Declarations done.”

President Donald Trump had yet to approve a Federal Disaster for Alabama. Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state emergency disaster on Friday. Trump did issue a Federal Disaster decree for Louisiana and Mississippi last Thursday.

“We think we get there on the federal, but there are three standards that have to be met,” Day said. “The list includes reimbursements the state will do, the use and overtime and equipment from city crews and then there is individuals. The city has met its thresholds. Our crews have been working from dawn to dusk for the last five days. We’ve been to focused on recovery.”

Power was knocked out at about 11:15 on the night of the storm.

A power line was felled near Walgreens and the area by the Crowne Healthcare nursing home was a concern early for power crews.

Auto Zone and Discount Tabacco were the first to get power back at 8 a.m. Both businesses are near a substation. Across the way, a large tree, totally blocked xxx Avenue.

Downtown, a roof in a section of downtown buildings near Tim Watts Jewelry, had been dumped. The properties are owned by the Prescott family.

“This is bad,” Tyler Prescott, who on Tuesday was elected as the new Clarke County Revenue Commissioner.

There were about two million total customers in the southeast US that had power out. This included 129,000 in the Mobile area.

Most roads were cleared by noon on Thursday. That was a feat in itself, said Clarke County EMA Director Roy Waite.

“We still haven’t been able to get out to the rural areas to see that damage,” Waite said in an interview with a Mobile TV station on Thursday evening. “Virtually every road in Clarke County had either a tree or power line down on it.”

By Sunday, about 50 percent of the city had power. Big Mike’s Steakhouse offered free hamburgers to those affected by Zeta. More than 1,200 burgers were cooked and served.