Picture an ice cream parlor’s worst nightmare – no refrigeration.
After spinoff storms from Hurricane Helene knocked out power to virtually all of Columbia County, “we were tossing stuff left and right,” said Lea Caldwell, owner of the two Whipped Creamery stores in Martinez and Grovetown.
But soon, in more ways than one, everything was cool.
“As soon as the storm was over, we ran out to our stores to connect our generators,” she said. “We’ve been doing food trucking since 2018, so the food trucking got us – well, my husband, mainly – very well-versed in generators. We have several of them. We had enough to power up our stores and power up our house.”
Indeed, food trucks were among the first businesses to respond directly to disrupted residents’ need for freshly prepared meals.
After closing the afternoon of Sept. 25 before the storms struck, SmokeShow Southern Style BBQ was back at its familiar parking spot Sept. 26 at 4275 Washington Rd. in Evans as people began venturing from their homes to find food. Taqueria el Rey set up in the parking lot in front of its Martinez brick-and-mortar location, serving food and collecting emergency-supply donations.