East Palatka, where the boat ramp was underwater for ten days
Hurricane Ian did not hit Putnam County directly. The St. Johns rose anyway, and in East Palatka it stayed up for more than a week. Here is what that did to air conditioners and what we changed.
Late September 2022, day by day
Thursday, the day after Ian crossed the state. The storm was gone and the sky cleared, but the St. Johns was receiving everything that had fallen on the upper basin. In East Palatka the river crept up the boat ramp through the afternoon.
The weekend. Water covered the ramp and the low ground around it, reached across yards along the river road, and stood in the skirting of manufactured homes on the lowest lots. Package units on grade-level pads sat with water in their control compartments.
The following week. The river did not fall. County officials warned residents that the crest was still coming. Homeowners who had pumped out once pumped out again. Air conditioners that had been shut off before the water stayed off; a few that had been running when the water came in had already failed.
Day ten. The water finally dropped below the ramp. The stain lines it left on skirting and fence posts are the reference marks we still use when we set a new unit anywhere on the east bank.
That ten-day stretch, five years after Irma pushed most of the river’s gauges into major flood in 2017, is why every replacement we do in East Palatka starts with a tape measure against the skirting rather than at the thermostat.
What East Palatka is
A census-designated community of about fifteen hundred people on the east shore of the St. Johns, directly across the Memorial Bridge from Palatka. It is more rural than the city: larger lots, sandy drives, pine and oak, and a housing stock that leans heavily toward manufactured homes alongside block ranches from the 1970s and 1980s and a few older frame farmhouses. The State Farmers Market and the Putnam County Fairgrounds anchor the commercial side, and the potato and cabbage fields stretch east along SR 207 toward Hastings.
City of Palatka water reaches parts of East Palatka; many lots are on private wells drawing from the Floridan Aquifer, with the iron and hardness that implies. Electric service here is FPL.
The equipment and its weak points
Manufactured homes mean package units: a single cabinet outside that holds the compressor, coils and blower, pushing air through a duct under the floor. The weak points are the duct, which sags and splits in the crawlspace, the undersized returns, and the fact that the whole machine sits at grade where water finds it. Block ranches here usually run split heat pumps with air handlers in a utility room or garage, and their failures are the ordinary ones of age: capacitors, fan motors, refrigerant leaks at the coil.
Farm and market buildings add walk-in coolers and large split systems that run long hours in season. We handle those under maintenance agreements where the owner wants one.
What we do differently on the east bank
- Every replacement goes on a stand built to the local high-water mark, with the electrical disconnect mounted higher still.
- Flooded units get a full electrical teardown and cleaning, not a visual check.
- Duct under manufactured homes is inspected on every maintenance visit, not just when a room runs warm.
- Well-fed condensate pumps and humidifiers are checked for scale every spring.
The route from Palm Coast
Our shop at 37 Fairmont Ln in Palm Coast is roughly thirty miles east along SR 100. East Palatka is where that road meets the river, about forty-five minutes door to door, before the bridge adds the last few minutes into town. We answer the phone at every hour and charge the same after dark as during the day.
East Palatka asks about water, mostly
Our package unit sat in six inches of river water for a week. It runs. Should I worry?
Yes. River water carries silt into the blower housing and fan motor and leaves corrosion on every electrical terminal in the control compartment. The failure typically shows up months later on a hot afternoon. We open it, clean it, test every component and tell you whether it is worth keeping.
How high should a replacement unit sit on a lot that flooded in 2022?
Above the Ian high-water mark on your property with margin to spare. On many East Palatka lots that means a stand of two to three feet; we look at the stain lines on skirting and fence posts and build to them.
We are on a well out here. Does that change the air conditioning?
It changes the condensate side. Well water in this part of the county is hard and often carries iron, and a humidifier, condensate pump or heat pump water heater fed by it scales faster. The air conditioner itself does not care, but anything that touches the water does.
Are you closer to East Palatka than to Palatka itself?
Slightly. Coming from our Palm Coast shop on SR 100, East Palatka is the last stop before the bridge, roughly forty-five minutes. Everything west of the river adds a few minutes.
East bank, first stop off SR 100
Flood checks, elevated replacements, manufactured-home systems. Any hour, no after-hours fee.