Camden County deals with severe winter weather

Kingsland church opens shelter for homeless

WOODBINE, Fla. – Government offices are closed and schools are canceled Wednesday in Camden County due to a winter storm warning.

Camden County Sheriff Capt. William Terrell said they have county workers on stand-by in case the weather gets worse.

"A lot of people fire rescue, city and county workers [are on standby] just in case trees start coming down. A lot of people on stand-by, they know it might get ugly," said Captain Terrell.

He said by Wednesday afternoon officials would decided if offices will remain closed Thursday.

Kingsland United Methodist Church has opened a shelter for homeless people in the area that need somewhere to stay out of the winter weather.

Donald Koski said church administrators were contacted by The Salvation Army St Marys Service Center Director Charlene Sears who thought there was a need for a homeless shelter in Camden County.

"Charlene Sears, the local director, called the church and said she thought there were a lot of people in Camden County. We don't know where they are, but they are there," said Koski.

Koski said the church realized their youth center was not being used enough. So they brought in cots and provisions for the area homeless to stay overnight.

"We have an under utilized facility here, so we decided to do it here. It's part of our two year plan that we're doing here in the church. But we didn't realize we'd be using it so fast," admitted Koski.

"We started yesterday morning getting approval, by 10am we had approval to go ahead with it. And by 4pm we opened the doors," said Koski.

The shelter opened at 4 p.m. Tuesday evening and will remain open until 10 a.m. Thursday morning. They could remain open past Thursday if cold weather is sustained.