Freeze Causes Spotty Damage to Valley Agriculture, Homes

By Tim Bragg, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Jan. 14–LINDSAY — Frigid overnight weather damaged some crops and caused headaches for homeowners and businesses with broken pipes, but farmers said Saturday that the cold snap so far hasn’t created the devastation seen in earlier freezes.

California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura visited a Lindsay packinghouse Saturday morning and spoke with Tulare County government and citrus industry representatives about plans to calculate damage from the cold weather — especially damage to citrus crops in the San Joaquin Valley.

“We’ve suffered significant damage, but it’s too early to assess the amount,” Kawamura said as he stood outside the LoBue Brothers Inc. packinghouse, where employees were busily processing oranges picked before the freezing temperatures set in.

Citrus industry leaders said temperatures in the mid- to low 20s in some areas caused damage, but they were confident that much of the crop had escaped devastating damage, for now.

Damage to crops was reported mainly in the San Joaquin Valley between Madera and Kern counties and in Southern California agricultural areas such as Riverside and Ventura counties, Kawamura said.

Exeter grower Ron Turner, 52, estimated he had lost about 20 percent of his 400-acre crop to the cold so far.

“Overall, I don’t think it was a catastrophe last night,” the Tulare County farmer said Saturday. “But how this thing plays out in the next few days is going to be the key.”

Kevin Durfee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford, said temperatures in the entire region would “bottom out” Saturday night and tonight. Forecasts for tonight call for below-freezing temperatures in every community across the San Joaquin Valley, ranging from a low of 15 in Coalinga to 26 in Fresno.

“The severity of the cold will be at its peak tonight [Saturday] and Sunday,” Durfee said. “If we can get through tonight and tomorrow night, the worst will be behind us.”

Durfee said it will still take several days before the area returns to normal temperatures.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for clear skies and low temperatures to remain through at least Thursday. The high today is expected to reach 53 degrees, with overnight lows dipping to 21 to 26 degrees. Starting Thursday, the Valley could see some partially cloudy skies and slight higher temperatures, with daytime highs of 52 to 59 degrees and overnight lows between 29 and 37.

Foothill and mountain communities will stay very cold, with lows of 2 degrees at Shaver Lake tonight and minus 2 at Lodgepole.

The state’s lowest temperatures were recorded in Bridgeport on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, about 70 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe, where the mercury dropped to 19 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service.

Freezing temperatures continued to cause problems throughout the Valley.

Low overnight temperatures kept emergency telephone operators busy fielding complaints about broken water pipes.

Chuck Tobias, a Fresno Fire Department battalion chief, said fire crews responded to about a dozen calls from about 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in all parts of the city, most at commercial buildings.

Because the Fire Department scheduled extra staffing this weekend to handle such calls, Tobias said, firefighters were able to respond quickly to each call and minimize property damage.

Among a few significant incidents, he said, were a broken water pipe inside a private hangar at Chandler Airport in west Fresno and three broken fire sprinkler heads on the roof of a courtyard patio at Pacific Gardens Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in southeast Fresno.

Babylyn Viloria, assistant director of nursing at Pacific Gardens, said the water-flow alarm went off at 9:13 a.m., but evacuation was not required once the problem was identified.

The additional staffing — two engine companies — was put in place Friday and was scheduled to operate through today to assist in any weather-related calls.

“So far, we haven’t gotten the volume of calls that were anticipated,” Tobias said. “We’ll see what happens in the next day or so.”

Fire dispatchers in Madera, Merced and Mariposa counties also reported a number of callers complaining of frozen pipes but no major property damage.

In Visalia, firefighters responded to four weather-related calls, the majority being broken pipes at several businesses and a residence, said Battalion Chief Doyle Sewell. Firefighters also treated a man who fell on an icy sidewalk Saturday morning.

Tulare County fire officials responded to about six calls Saturday morning for broken pipes.

A warming center at the Frank H. Ball Community Center in west Fresno was housing nearly 50 homeless people by 9 p.m., and officials expected more to arrive during the evening. The Sal Mosqueda Center in southeast Fresno and the Pinedale Community Center in north Fresno were open to families and others who needed shelter from the cold. At the Mosqueda center Saturday night, about four or five people had arrived by 9 p.m.

In outlying areas where colder weather prevailed, the agricultural damage was spotty, Kawamura said. Some areas were hit harder than others, giving farmers and officials hope that some crops survived the cold blanket of arctic air that settled over the Valley.

Avocados, lemons and oranges are among the fruit susceptible to damage from freezing temperatures, he said.

The northern and eastern areas of Tulare County’s citrus belt tended to fare better than areas to the south, said Tulare County Agricultural Commissioner Gary Kunkel.

Temperatures in some areas were higher than expected, while other areas saw temperatures as low as 19 degrees, he said.

Because of the freezing temperatures, citrus fruit picked Saturday or later will be subject to county inspection before processing.

The industry-supported measures are designed to ensure that no damaged fruit makes it to the market.

“We want to make sure the oranges packed are good oranges,” Kunkel said. “Consumers need to be confident in the quality of the fruit they buy.”

Kawamura said the state has set aside money to pay for the increased inspections.

Oranges and other citrus are damaged by freezing temperatures because they cause the liquids inside the fruit to freeze and expand, he said. The expanding liquids damage membranes that contain them.

A freeze-damaged orange will dry out and become tough and inedible, said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual.

“There are a lot of pockets of good fruit out there, but some didn’t do so well,” he said.

Nelsen said growers are reporting that the freeze damage so far doesn’t seem as severe as the freezes in 1990 and 1998.

The 1998 freeze damaged about 70 percent of that year’s crop, he said.

The 1990 freeze was much worse — temperatures dropped into the low teens and damaged almost all the crop that year. Because the trees themselves also sustained damage, the following year’s crop was devastated too, he said.

But Nelsen and others said they are still concerned because the cold is expected to hold steady through tonight.

The citrus crop could still be damaged by the cumulative effects of the cold, especially lemons and Valencia oranges, which are more susceptible to freezing than navel oranges, he said.

California’s citrus crop is worth about $1 billion, Nelsen said. About three-fourths of the crop is still on the trees, he said.

Any loss in crops equals a loss in jobs for packinghouse and field workers, said Philip LoBue, president of LoBue Brothers Inc.

About 125 people work at the Lindsay packinghouse, and LoBue said a bad freeze could lead to layoffs.

“They’ve been through this before. They know their jobs are at risk,” he said.

Bee staff writers Louis Galvan and Denny Boyles and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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