- With temperatures dipping into the 20s, one woman is warming up her well pump with clothing and tarps, calling it a "Florida Snowman."
- The Killearn Ace Hardware owner says neighbors have been buying items to prepare for the cold.
- Watch the video to see what item they had flying off the shelves.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Twenty-three degrees is how cold our Weather STEM network says the temperature got at Chiles High School Wednesday morning. This freezing weather is having a big impact on Northeast Tallahassee.
With more cold weather on the way, I'm checking with one hardware store that's seeing supplies fly off the shelves.
Neighbor Susan Burton knows a thing or two about preparing for a change in weather.
"I just retired from the police department yesterday after 25 years, spent many years getting prepared for hurricanes, for storms," Burton said.
When she saw temperatures were dipping into the 20s, she decided to do something.
"It was my last day actually turning in all my stuff to the department and I don't want to wake up today without water and it be all frozen."
She made what she's calling a "...Florida snowman."
It's something she did to keep her well pump warm through freezing temperatures.
"I just looked around the house and things like that and it's like why not use it? I've done it before where I just kind of layer it with a tarp and a jacket and just kind of made it fun," Burton said.
She's not the only one that's been preparing.
Eric Chorey, owner of the Killearn Ace Hardware, told me neighbors have been coming in for items like heaters, wood and plant covers.
But he tells me one item is in high demand.
"We were actually keeping a tally because we were curious about how many calls we were going to take about faucet covers," Chorey said. "We took over 80 calls yesterday wanting to know if we still had faucet covers."
He said our First to Know Weather team drove many to prepare.
"We certainly rely on your weather team to do a great job in providing us accurate weather and it obviously translates into helping our customers be prepare," Chorey said.
Burton said she posted her idea to social media to remind her neighbors to protect their pipes.
"I kinda wanna like instigate like 'hey, let's do a competition and everyone have fun with it while you protect your pipes and make sure your water doesn't freeze or a pipe doesn't break," Burton said.
Florida isn't the only place with frozen pipe concerns.
State Farm said last year, Georgia was the number one state for losses due to burst pipes with $100 million claim costs.
