BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The City of Brunswick was coated in a blanket of ice and snow Wednesday after a historic snow event overnight.
The winter storm’s disruptions were a welcome January gift to some like Gerard Stark, who got the day off school and busted out a makeshift sled for some rare fun in the snow.
“I even built three snowmen. One melted. Two I just built,” said Stark.
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Others like Jonathan Nichols got a crash course in winter chores, as he scraped off his windshield before hitting the road to Brantley County.
“It’s South Georgia! We shouldn’t go through this, but hey! It happens sometimes, I guess,” said Nichols.
The winter weather isn’t all fun and games though.
Road conditions were icy on parts of I-95, closing some bridges and causing a few accidents our crews witnessed on their drive up North.
Lawton Dodd with Glynn County said crews worked through the day to make roads in town passable.
“Public works is putting sand out at intersections where it’s needed to be, where there’s ice and slippery roads,” said Dodd.
Power outages were also a major problem.
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“It’s going on and off. Like every 30 minutes it’ll go off,” said Nichols.
More than 25,000 in the county were experiencing outages as of mid-day.
“They’re getting the number down rapidly, but they are bringing in extra crews to go to work and get things back up and running as quickly as possible,” said Dodd.
While power crews were hard at work restoring power throughout the day Wednesday, the icy roads are only expected to worsen overnight.
“We are urging people to stay off the roads,” said Dodd.
Dodd explained snow melted throughout the day is expected to refreeze overnight, producing hazardous road conditions.
“The roads are gonna be icy. There’s gonna be black ice. It’s going to be treacherous,” said Dodd.
Due to the dangerous travel situation, Glynn County Schools and government offices for Glynn County and the City of Brunswick will remain closed Thursday.
The county also declared an overnight curfew running from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Thursday in hopes of discouraging people from driving on the roads and to keep loiterers off the streets.
Dodd said there is some optimism things will be able to get back to normal by Friday though.
“That could change, but temperatures, the forecast, everything we’re looking at seems to indicate that it’ll warm up enough tomorrow, and it shouldn’t get cold enough again to see all the refreezing issues,” said Dodd.
Despite the challenges, some like Nichols planned to brave the roads Wednesday.
In his case, for the payoff of even more snow at a family member’s property further West.
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But Nichols says he’s going to let dad do the driving.
“He’s gonna be behind the wheel. I’ve driven in it once before. I was up in New Jersey with my uncle. But once. I hated it. I’m not doing it again,” said Nichols.
For those without power or a way to stay warm, the county is opening three warming centers.
Here’s a full list of the locations and operating hours:
- CCGA Conference Center -- 2:30 - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday
- The Club SSI, 2929 Demere Rd. -- 2:30 - 5:30 p.m. Wednesday
- Risley Annex, 2900 Albany St. -- 4 p.m. Wednesday - 11 a.m. Thursday.
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