First Coast still frozen from impacts of Winter storm

Tallahassee takes a snow day.

The Northeast Florida region remains in the grips of the wild Winter storm which blasted the state Tuesday night into Wednesday morning with snow and freezing rain.

Traffic was blocked from entering much of downtown Jacksonville as Duval County emergency managers shut down three of the main bridges spanning the St. Johns River entering the urban core. Concerns about icy roads prompted those shutdowns, as temperatures remained in the low 30s as of 10:15 a.m.

“The Main Street, Hart, and Mathews bridges are closed in both directions due to icy road conditions,” said the official X account for the Jacksonville Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security. “Use extreme caution if you must drive (Wednesday), particularly on elevated areas like bridges and overpasses.”

Those three bridges are the main access points to downtown Jacksonville and are all near EverBank Field, the stadium where the Jacksonville Jaguars play their home games. There are two other bridges where motorists can get into downtown, including the Acosta in the western reach of downtown and the Fuller Warren, which is the bridge that crosses the St. Johns River as part of Interstate 95.

All bridges were reopened about 12 p.m., according to city officials.

Meanwhile, another key transportation element was scheduled to reopen Wednesday. Jacksonville International Airport closed Tuesday night at about 8 p.m. and was set to open again at 12 p.m. Wednesday. There were 54 arrivals and 38 departures canceled during the closure. Travelers should check with their airline for rescheduled flights.

For schools and colleges, all of Duval County Public Schools were shut down Wednesday along with colleges and universities throughout the First Coast region. Those institutions were supposed to return to normal operations Thursday.

Jacksonville government offices were also mostly closed Wednesday, with the exception of some limited court functions.

Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s Office issued an advisory at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday warning residents to use extreme caution if they were going to venture out of their homes.

“As wintry precipitation from the winter storm wraps up Wednesday morning, icy conditions are still possible on roadways. The National Weather Service (NWS) Jacksonville has issued a Freeze Warning (Wednesday night) with wind chill temperatures expected to be in the 20s,” a news release said.

The city was still operating “warming centers” at several locations in Jacksonville for any residents who may be facing heating issues as temperatures remained in the 30s.

At the coast, most of those municipalities have shut down due to cold and wintry participation. Jacksonville Beach also closed its offices but returned to some operations at 10 a.m. Wednesday.