When Helene knocked out power in Waycross, Teri Thomas feared for her granddaughter’s survival.
The 10-year-old was born with a condition that makes her dependent on a feeding pump for medicine and nutrition. With the equipment idled, the child quickly grew ill. The family hoped dialing 911 would help. It did not.
The family was eventually able to borrow a generator; the closest functioning gas station was a 70 mile round trip. Thomas is anxious about finding fuel again if the generator runs out before the power is back on.
“We have found out real fast, there is nowhere to go. There is nowhere to get help,” Thomas said Sunday. “We are surviving barely — we’re hanging in there.”
Cities across central and South Georgia are gearing up for a lengthy recovery after Helene, first a hurricane, then a tropical storm, felled trees, ripped off roofs and smashed buildings. An estimated 370,000 Georgia households were still without power Monday morning.
“We got hit so hard,” said Swainsboro Police Chief Randy Ellison, whose town was among those still lacking power. “I’ve been doing this 36 years and this is the worst storm I’ve ever seen. It is just complete devastation here.”
Among the emergency efforts in his Emmanuel County community has been caring for the 75 residents of a nearby assisted-living community once responders were able to get there.
“There were some of those folks that hadn’t had food in days because they were not able to leave,” Ellison said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
A Swainsboro race track and a Baptist church were organizing community cookouts to make use of thawing food before it spoiled. Ellison said his officers were picking up plates and shuttling those meals to older residents on Monday.
“A lot of our businesses don’t have roofs and their windows are completely busted out. It’s bad,” Ellison said. “We have power lines down everywhere. I think we’re looking at the end of the week or maybe the first of next before we even consider getting power back.”
Several injuries were reported across Swainsboro, including a man hospitalized Friday when a tree crashed through the roof of his mobile home, but the town hasn’t had storm-related fatalities, Ellison said. Across the state, at least 25 deaths had been attributed to the storm as of Monday afternoon.
As politicians from both sides of the aisle toured various parts of Georgia on Monday, the state’s 16-member Congressional delegation asked President Joe Biden to expedite approval of Gov. Brian Kemp’s disaster declaration, which would cover 89 of the state’s 159 counties. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper urged the delegation to secure relief for farmers.
“Right now, the future of hundreds of agricultural operations across Georgia is uncertain,” Harper wrote in a letter signed by state Rep. Robert Dickey and state Sen. Russ Goodman, who chairs the Georgia House and Senate Committees on Agriculture and Consumer Affairs. “Without immediate assistance, some will not make it to the next growing season.”
Credit: Charmain Brackett
Credit: Charmain Brackett
Tom Perez, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, pledged swift action.
“There’s a lot more work to do. We just received Gov. Kemp’s request for an emergency declaration and I’m confident that it will be processed very, very quickly,” he said Monday afternoon. “We’re talking hours, not days.”
After touring the damage in Valdosta and Augusta, Kemp signed an executive order late Monday that authorized another 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops to be called up. That brings the total to 2,500 troops to assist with the cleanup.
In many communities, folks are doing what they can to help each other through. Residents of Tennille, in the Helene-struck heart of eastern Middle Georgia, grilled hundreds of hot dogs and sausages in a parking lot Monday to ensure their neighbors had enough to eat. Lacking power, many hadn’t been able to cook for days.
Washington County Sheriff Joel Cochran, who delivered lunches to nearby homes, estimates hundreds of trees, perhaps thousands, are being cleared or have been cleared from roads across the region. Cellphone service has largely been restored, he said, but power could be out in some outlying locales for weeks.
“People don’t have electricity, they don’t have food, water,” he said. “We’ve had storms come through before but we’ve never had one come through and bring this kind of punch.”
Jennifer Douglas, who lives in Atlanta, tried for hours on Friday to reach her parents in Alma. Her father has Parkinson’s disease, and his caretaker couldn’t get to them. A family member was able to check on them and Douglas was finally able to get through on Sunday.
“I’m in my 50s, but I’m still a daughter,” Douglas said. “It was just very frightening for us, and so helpless ... We didn’t know what to do.”
She plans to drive down with supplies such as tarps, camping stoves, propane, generators, clothing, chainsaws and replacement blades on Tuesday for the community’s use, but will bring her parents back with her.
Over the weekend, some stores in Alma were able to reopen and generate enough power to accept credit cards, and limited cell service was restored. A few gas stations are functioning, but the lines are half a mile long, City Manager Al Crace said.
He said weathering the storm’s aftermath will be a joint effort of city personnel and residents.
”Tough as it is, there’s a lot of personal outreach,” he said. “It’s just good to have friends, families and good neighbors.”
Credit: Joe Kovac Jr-- AJC
Credit: Joe Kovac Jr-- AJC
— Staff writers Greg Bluestein, Rosana Hughes, Drew Kann and Joe Kovac Jr. contributed to this article.
