Photo coverage from Gulf Coast Media staff and contributors for areas of Baldwin County covered by The Onlooker: Foley and central Baldwin to Bay Minette and Bon Secour.
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Hyper-local coverage from Gulf Coast Media of the Jan. 21 snow storm plus photo coverage from GCM staff and contributors for areas of Baldwin County covered by The Onlooker: Foley and central Baldwin to Bay Minette and Bon Secour.
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Well, central Baldwin, you’ve secured a rare record.
Foley and Elsanor recorded the most local snowfall from Winter Storm Enzo, which blanketed Baldwin County and the Gulf Coast with historic amounts on Jan. 21, at 10 inches.
Across the county, National Weather Service data show Spanish Fort got 9.5 inches as of 6:20 p.m. on Jan. 21, Orange Beach recorded 9 inches at 9 p.m., Silverhill 9 inches at 7:30 p.m., Gulf Shores 8.8 inches at 9 p.m., Fairhope 8.1 inches at 8 p.m. and Daphne 7.3 inches at 8 p.m.
Robertsdale and Loxley recorded the lowest temperature at 9 degrees on Jan. 22 at 7 a.m. Lows ranged beyond that from 11 degrees in Turkey Branch to 21 in Bon Secour, though the entire county experienced six nights of hard-freeze temperatures and at least two days of either not climbing above freezing or only doing do for a few hours.
Around the area, municipalities, first responders and county and utility crews worked to keep roads clear, respond to incidents and stay up to date during an unprecedented weather event.
Baldwin County had 15 crews working on ice removal operations across the county, comprising 50 employees, said Mark Acreman, assistant county engineer for Baldwin County Commission.
“These crews focused on addressing hazardous conditions caused by ice accumulation, prioritizing critical areas such as major roadways, bridges, and known trouble spots. Their efforts were instrumental in mitigating risks and improving travel conditions for residents and emergency responders during this challenging weather event.”
The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office deployed additional deputies, at times doubling the usual patrols, Sheriff Anthony Lowery said.
“In collaboration with the deputies assigned to work with EMA, we assisted in traffic direction on detours caused by icy roads, helped stranded motorists and provided support to other law enforcement agencies as needed,” Lowery said. “Regarding call volume, the total number of calls remained near normal levels; however, the nature of the calls shifted predominantly to weather-related incidents.”
He said most calls involved motorist assistance, agency support, hazardous road conditions and building alarms.
In Foley, city police responded to 19 fire/medical assistant calls, 14 vehicle accidents and one report of a disabled vehicle.
From the time the snow started Tuesday until 8 a.m. Friday, Foley fire units responded to 30 incidents that were dispatched through Baldwin County 9-1-1, according to Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby. The calls included motor vehicle accidents, lift assist calls, public assists, medical assist calls with EMS, fire alarms due to frozen fire sprinkler systems, an electrical fire due to a broken power line and two structure fires in homes.
Only one of the structure fires is possibly linked to the weather event, but the exact cause is undetermined at this point, according to Darby. That fire resulted in a complete loss of the residence.
Foley crews were challenged with fighting the fire with heavy snow on the ground, he said. The department added additional staffing throughout the weather event to assist with call volume and to staff vehicles that could better travel in the conditions.
The Fire Department reported no injuries to personnel during the event, and all employees were able to make it in to work their shifts.
Public Works crews also worked during and after to clear ice and snow from city roadways, said Guy Busby, city spokesperson. The department added two recycling trucks to city garbage collection routes to pick up material that could not be collected during the severe weather.
Silverhill Mayor Jared Lyles said the event was handled “relatively smooth.”
“We only had two minor wrecks in the jurisdiction and only a few stranded motorists due to ice. Nothing major. We shut down a couple roads until ice issues cleared, but only for a few hours,” he said. “Our first responders kept on top of potential hazards, which kept our issues, thankfully, to a minimum. Thankfully, for the most part, the people of Silverhill enjoyed spending time with family and the community playing in the snow.”
That snow reached 9.5 to 10 inches in the mayor’s yard, and he said he spoke with other town residents who measured 10.5.
Loxley Volunteer Fire Chief Tony Lovell, who is also a lieutenant at the police department, said the fire department responded to 70 storm-related calls in the three days of weather impacts, with 90% of them being traffic accidents and vehicle calls.
The police department responded to 209 calls between Jan. 21-24, including 28 for weather-related vehicle accidents, four business alarms, 24 motorist assists and five reckless drivers.
Magnolia Springs Fire Chief Kaylan Driskell said between 6 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, and noon on Friday, Jan. 24, volunteer firefighters responded to one house fire, two chimney/fireplace fires, one A/C unit fire, one cooking/oven fire, one call for an odor of smoke inside, one busted water line, two agency assist calls to provide traffic control while contractors put out sand on the bridge, two vehicle accidents (no injuries), four EMS calls and four miscellaneous calls for service.
Though exact numbers were not available, the Town of Elberta did not appear to have any major issues either. The town has two deputies, who switched off day and night shifts as normal during and after the storm.
Storms the Gulf Coast is used to, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, are often characterized by death tolls and economic impact of property destruction. Neither was the case last week across the county. While some individual properties were damaged when roofs or coverings caved in from heavy, slow-melting snow, there was no widespread catastrophe.
Baldwin County 9-1-1 dispatched 382 emergency calls, 85 vehicle accidents and one hospital transport on Tuesday, Jan. 21, according to Deputy Director of Operations Kathryn Byrd. On Wednesday, dispatchers received 414 emergency calls, 19 accident calls and no transports. On Thursday, they received 444 emergency calls, 62 accident calls and one transport, and on Friday, they dispatched 335 emergency calls between midnight and 8:45 p.m., 58 accidents and two transports.
Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency Director Tom Tyler said he was satisfied with their processes and “ability to affect positive outcomes” during an event that presented hazards “of which we are quite unaccustomed.”
“Unique to this response was constantly changing conditions: After roads are cleared of debris following a hurricane, they customarily don’t become blocked again the way our roads thawed and then re-froze overnight. Additionally, this response was unique in that it almost exclusively focused on road conditions and motorist safety, with very little concern of damage to buildings and infrastructure,” Tyler said. “The response evolved from monitoring weather forecasts and tracking snowfall totals, then assessing the impacts and working to facilitate the actions of first responders as they dealt with unprecedented conditions to assist residents and motorists that were stranded on our highways. In the end, we were fortunate to have so far escaped any damage to Baldwin County Commission facilities.”
Compared to the ice-mageddon storm of January 2014, last week’s weather was characterized by significant snowfall followed by icy conditions on roadways as opposed to 11 years ago when freezing rain with warmer temperatures that evolved into sleet/snow then a wintry mix. 2014 was a quick education across the state as accidents piled up on interstates and local roadways.
“The primary concerns during both events centered on safety and travel,” said Danon Smith, deputy director of Baldwin EMA.
After the 2014 storm, Baldwin County EMA launches Facebook and X accounts, “separate from but aligned with the Baldwin County Commission’s pages, to enhance public access to information. Over the past 10-15 years, we’ve witnessed a shift in society’s use of social media, which has been incorporated into our communications strategies,” Smith said.
A key difference between the two storms was the agency’s use of a virtual Emergency Operations Center (EOC) platform last week. In addition to the traditional EOC activation protocol, which involved 24-hour staffing from EMA, Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), public safety and highway/transportation representatives, this new technology “provided greater flexibility for partners and stakeholders to collaborate, even when fieldwork or travel hindrances prevented physical presence,” Smith said.
“Additionally, a Mass Notification System was implemented as part of our communication tools. This system is capable of sending messages to subscribers as well as emergency IPAWS messages,” Smith said. “While no IPAWS messages were needed, weather-related messages were automatically sent to subscribers, in line with system design and industry best practices.”
Baldwin County EMA opened shelters during both storms, with Enzo’s cold-snap bringing, the most at one time, 12 people to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Foley on Thursday, two to Fairhope United Methodist Church on Thursday, three to Robertsdale First Baptist Church on Tuesday and 15 to Restoration House of Atmore on Wednesday.
Though NWS data was largely focused on Mobile and Pensacola, records fell across the region. Mobile Regional Airport set a two-day snowfall record with 7.5 inches of measured snow. This surpassed the previous two-day snowfall record of 6 inches of snow, which had stood since the February Snowstorm of 1895.
Pensacola shattered its previous two-day snowfall record with 8.9 inches of measured snow. This far surpassed the prior two-day record of inches of snow, set during the same 1895 storm.
This snowstorm also surpassed the snow and ice accumulations from the historic 2014 event.
In addition to the snowfall, cold temperature records were also shattered. On Jan. 22, Mobile plunged to 6 degrees (thanks to the snowpack on the ground), according to NWS data, breaking the daily low temperature record and tying for the third-coldest low on record. This marked only the 11th time Mobile recorded a single-digit low temperature. Meanwhile, Pensacola dropped to 13 degrees on Jan. 22, breaking its daily low temperature record.
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