At least 17 people have died in Georgia after the massive storm Helene barreled across the Southeast, state officials said Saturday.
The death toll across four states — Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas — hit at least 52 by Saturday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. Storm damage, including downed trees and power lines, made reaching victims treacherous in some areas.
James Stallings, director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, said during a Saturday news conference in Valdosta that the death toll could rise as cleanup efforts continue due to hazardous scenarios like powerlines in flooded areas and unsafe driving conditions. He said GEMA and the National Guard are focused on getting roads cleared so health facilities can function properly and crews can restore power.
“We lose more individuals through the cleanup process due to dangerous situations ... If you don’t have necessary travel, we’re asking you, keep those roads cleared,” Stallings said, adding that a GEMA member stepped on a live power line during cleanup, leaving the soldier unconscious.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp confirmed that a first responder was among those killed in the storm.
“One of our finest lost his life trying to save others,” Kemp said.
Vernon “Leon” Davis, the Blackshear Fire Department’s assistant chief, died when a tree fell on his city truck shortly before 1:30 a.m. Friday, Pierce County Coroner William Wilson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Blackshear is located about 10 miles northeast of Waycross.
Davis was responding to storm calls when he was killed, Wilson said. The veteran firefighter was passionate about his work serving the community.
“That’s what he loved doing,” Wilson said.
Downed trees were the cause of multiple deaths, including several in the Augusta area. In McDuffie County, about 35 miles west of Augusta, four deaths were reported.
In the Thomson area, a 27-year-old mother and her 1-month-old twin boys died when a tree crashed through their mobile home, according to McDuffie County Coroner Paul Johnson. All three were in bed together when they were killed, Johnson said.
An 89-year-old woman also died in Dearing when a tree landed on her home, Johnson said.
Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen reported five deaths involving fallen trees. Bowen said it’s been difficult to respond to scenes due to the damage and trees on the roads.
“It’s hard to get to these places because trees are down. It’s just a chaotic mess,” he said.
A 77-year-old Hispanic man died in Grovetown, near Augusta, when a tree fell on his mobile home, according to the town’s Mayor Gary Jones.
”The tree was so big, we had to bring in a crane to lift it off so that we could even get in there and remove him from the scene,” Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In Washington County, a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl died after a tree fell on their home and trapped them inside the burning house, Augusta television station WRDW reported. Another person died in Grovetown in Columbia County after a tree fell on a mobile home, the station reported.
Some 90 miles southwest, a 58-year-old Dublin man was killed early Friday when massive pine trees crashed through the roof of his house. A second person, a Kentucky woman, 48, died when the 18-wheeler she and her husband were traveling in was struck by a wind-blown tree along U.S. 441 about 20 miles south of Dublin.
Laurens County Coroner Richard Stanley III identified the woman who was killed as Angela Edwards of Eddyville, Kentucky. The coroner said the truck Edwards and her husband were in hit a tree in the highway. Before they could move that tree, another toppled onto Edwards.
The Dublin resident who died in the storm, Charles Douglas Brownlee, lived in a house that at least four giant pines keeled over on in a particularly hard-hit section of town near the city’s high school football stadium.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
