This month’s unusual, enduring cold snap has many individuals across the South hoping for warmer weather as crops and cities continue to sustain damage. Homeowners began wrapping household pipes and making preparation for outside plants and animals when Louisiana and Florida governors Bobby Jindal and Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency because of the severity of the cold. Damage to campus buildings was minimal, largely because of the freeze protection plan the University implements for such cold weather, Director of Resource Services Paul Favaloro said. One incident occurred Jan. 9 in which air-conditioning coils ruptured, flooding a portion of the Hatcher Hall basement. ‘Most of the damage sustained was in the Hatcher Hall basement,’ Favaloro said. ‘Damage to the basement was significant, and the room is currently being dehumidified.’ Louisiana’s strawberry harvests are also expected to suffer from the hard freeze.’ ‘Right now we estimate we’ve saved around 50 percent, but we really won’t know until the next few weeks what we’ve done,’ said Chuck Ciampa of Ciampa Strawberry Farms in Hammond. Eric Morrow of Morrow Farms in Ponchatoula said the protective covers most farmers use are only helpful for temperatures down to 26 degrees. ‘When we got down to 20 degrees, we lost all of our blooms,’ Morrow said. He estimates a large gap in the strawberry season this year. Citrus farmers across Florida are anxiously waiting to assess the damage the sub-freezing temperatures have inflicted on crops, while the Sunshine State’s fishing industry has already seen considerable losses. Snook are one of the top game fish in Florida and cannot survive long in waters below 58 degrees, said Rick Roberts, executive director of the Snook Foundation. ‘We expect this kill to surpass that of 1977 when we lost a million snook,’ Roberts said. Roberts said there have been reported sightings of hundreds of dead fish and of all inshore species including seat turtles, birds and alligators. ‘The freeze of Jan. 2010 is a potent reminder that our natural resources, all of our fish and wildlife, are fragile,’ Roberts said. The state of emergency will remain in effect until Feb. 9, according to the Louisiana state government Web site. The National Weather Service said temperatures will begin rising significantly this week. — Contact Hannah Adams at [email protected]