Cold Lingers in Southeast but Most Citrus Groves Appear Spared

An avalanche of freezing air dropped temperatures to record lows across the Southeast on Tuesday, although most Florida citrus groves apparently escaped a killing frost. In the Northeast, utility crews worked to restore electricity cut by heavy snow and ice.

The weather was blamed for at least 15 deaths from Sunday into Tuesday, from Florida to New York. On Monday, the weather forced schools to close in at least 12 states and sent dozens of homeless people to Alabama shelters.

Low temperature records for the date Tuesday were shattered all across the South, dipping into the 20s in Florida and into the teens and lower elsewhere.

In the Appalachians, Asheville, N.C., chilled to 2 below zero, down from the record of 8 set in 1977, and Beckley, W.Va., hit 7 below, 3 degrees off its old record, also set in 1977.

1897 Mark Broken

The lows of 13 at Montgomery, Ala., and Savannah, Ga., broke records that had stood since 1897. Greer, S.C., hit a record low of just 5.

And in Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie dove to a record 28 degrees below zero, the National Weather Service reported.

Central Florida’s citrus belt, with two-thirds of the season’s grapefruit and orange crops still on the trees, had temperatures in the mid-20s for several hours early Tuesday, right at the threshold of time and cold that could damage trees, growers said.

Hay for Insulation

West Palm Beach tied its record of 31, Jacksonville had a record low of 17 and Tallahassee listed a record low of 14.

“We know we’ll have some fruit damage. The degree we won’t know for awhile. But it certainly won’t be the magnitude of the freezes the last two years,” said Dick Whalley, a spokesman for Florida Citrus Mutual, a growers’ cooperative.

The $1-billion-a-year wholesale citrus industry suffered tree-killing freezes in December, 1983, and January, 1985.

Growers had flooded citrus groves, hoping that standing water would retain enough heat to protect the trees. Others piled on hay for insulation or set oil-burning heaters between trees. Piles of earth were stacked against the trunks of vulnerable young trees.

“I even got out there with some old newspapers, weaving it between the plants,” said Fred Spear, owner of Crystal Lake Farms in Pompano Beach. “It may only change the temperature by one degree, but that can make all the difference. We’re really grasping at straws now.”

In northern Florida, more than 70,000 homes in Duval County lost power for various short periods during the night as the cold and heavy load for heating tripped circuit breakers and fuses, said Bob Hoover, emergency control supervisor for the Jacksonville Electric Authority.

Roads, Basements Flooded

Schools across northern and central Georgia remained closed a second day Tuesday because of the cold, but temperatures began rising during the day and by mid-afternoon, Atlanta was reporting 34 degrees, Columbus 39 and Waycross 40.

To the north, a storm off the northern Atlantic Coast spread more snow across the Northeast, where nearly 4 feet of snow fell over the weekend in parts of New York state’s mountains.

The cold in Michigan clogged the lower St. Clair River with ice again Tuesday, flooding roads and basements in Algonac and two townships farther upstream, City Councilman Bill Hart said.

Emergency workers in Marquette County, Michigan, detonated 1,000 pounds of explosives Tuesday to break up ice that made a creek near Harvey rise at a rate of an inch per hour. The rising water threatened to flood a waste water pumping station and back up sewage into basements, said Larry Gould, supervisor of the township Department of Public Works.