The severe storm that hit Whidbey Island last month left Port of Coupeville officials scrambling to find someone to make repairs to a fuel float.

The high tides and high-speed winds that marked the Dec. 17 storm caused the brackets on one of the two 40-foot concrete fuel floats at the Coupeville Wharf to fail. Port staff was able to secure the float before it drifted away.

Jim Patton, executive director for the Port of Coupeville, said the float was taken to Captain Coupe Park near the town’s wastewater treatment facility, where it could be pulled from the water. A work crew from Northwest Docks with a trailer and a crane pulled the 13-ton float from the water. It was towed to Anacortes for repairs.

“These brackets are so far gone that they have to get ripped off and new ones put on again,” Patton said.