Recovery efforts continue into their second week after Hurricane Helene devastated the Augusta area on Sept. 27.

Though thousands remain without power heading into this week, Georgia Power said that by Saturday, Oct. 5 80% of its Augusta customers had their power restored.

The Category 4 storm made landfall Sept. 26 along Florida’s Big Bend coast. The Augusta area saw isolated tornadoes and hurricane-force wind gusts exceeding 80 mph, downing trees and powerlines.

Below is the latest information on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in Augusta and east Georgia. The Augusta Chronicle staff will update regularly.

Aiken County Public School System announced on Saturday that Paul Knox Middle in North Augusta and Aiken High School in Aiken will serve as shelters. But this was later updated to only Paul Knox serving as a shelter. Those sheltering at Paul Knox should enter at Wells Road and Pisgah Avenue.

Aiken County schools continue to be closed as they are currently on fall break through Oct. 11.

Many residents in communities surrounding Augusta remain without power as the area heads into its second week of recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene.

“It’s going to be a multiple-week-long process,” Wayne Gossage Jr., president of Jefferson Energy Cooperative, last week said of efforts to restore power in more rural areas. “I was here during the ice storm of 2014 and I never thought we’d see anything close to that, but this is much worse for multiple reasons. The transmission that’s out, the damage to our distribution system is going to take time to repair. The ice storm was isolated more or less, but this is all over.” 

Here’s a look of remaining power outages in some of the communities outside Augusta as reported by Dataminr on Sunday morning. The data is presented by electric utility, county affected and the number of remaining outages.

Jefferson Energy

• Mcduffie County, GA: 3,153
• Jefferson County, GA: 3,105
• Columbia County, GA: 2,691
• Richmond County, GA: 1,795
• Burke County, GA: 1,116
• Warren County, GA: 826
• Glascock County, GA: 465
• Emanuel County, GA: 435
• Johnson County, GA: 229
• Washington County, GA: 89

Aiken Electric

• Aiken County, SC: 6,033
• Edgefield County, SC: 4,126
• McCormick County, SC: 535
• Saluda County, SC: 146
• Barnwell County, SC: 40

Dominion Energy

• Aiken County, SC: 8,305
• Edgefield County, SC: 1,418
• Saluda County, SC: 1,008
• Mccormick County, SC: 719
• Richland County, SC: 91
• Gloucester County, VA: 16
• Abbeville County, SC: 11
• Fairfax County, VA: 9
• Petersburg County, VA: 8
• Lexington County, SC: 8

United Way of the Central Savannah River Area, its 211 Helpline and the crowdsourced internet charity site GoFundMe.org are collectively raising funds for families harmed by damage from Hurricane Helene.The fund will offer unrestricted cash grants of $200 to help people pay for food, water, clothing, diapers and other critical supplies. “Additional grants will become available as new funds are raised through this impactful partnership,” according to Madison Jones, a communications manager with GoFundMe.United Way CSRA’s 2-1-1 is helping to identify grantees, and GoFundMe.org will issue the grants. GoFundMe has made an initial $50,000 contribution to begin immediately helping 250 people in Augusta.Tax-deductible donations also will be granted to support those in need.

Four Richmond County schools will distribute hot meals next week to help support students and families while schools are closed.

The sites will be open Monday – Friday from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. The food distribution sites are:  

• Glenn Hills Middle School, 2941 Glenn Hills Drive, Augusta, GA 30906 
• Hephzibah Elementary School, 2542 Highway 88, Hephzibah, GA 30815 
• McBean Elementary School, 1165 Hephzibah – McBean Rd, Hephzibah, GA 30815 
• W.S. Hornsby Elementary School, 310 Kentucky Avenue, Augusta, GA 30901 

Each site will provide a hot meal and to-go bag with a cold breakfast. No identification is required to pick up meals and sites are open to the public.  

For more information about RCSS meal distribution, please contact RCSS Nutrition Services at (706) 834-5797. 

The City of Augusta on Friday night announced the boil water advisory was lifted for residents and businesses.

The Augusta Utilities Department lifted the boil water advisory, issued on Monday, noting comprehensive water testing confirmed the tap water meets all regulatory standards and is safe for human consumption, according to a news release.

Affected customers no longer need to boil water for drinking, cooking or making ice – but should flush their lines by opening the cold water faucet and letting the water run for two minutes, according to the release.

“We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience,” officials wrote in the release.

How Augustans coped without water

Many Augusta residents had to find alternative methods of gathering water in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Last week, reporters with The Chronicle watched as Ricardo Ramirez collected water in a trash bag from a street gutter on Aumond Road.

“This is the only way we can [get water], unless we go to the river, but that is too far away,” Ramirez said.

He explained that he was using the water to flush the toilet, but was walking to a nearby creek to bathe.

Aside from being out of water, a large tree crashed through the ceiling of his AirBnB, causing extensive interior damage.

“Our road was completely full of trees – everywhere,” Ramirez said. “A friend [who was in the house] was standing so close to where the tree came through the house, he almost died.”

He added it was difficult to get anywhere because his truck was blocked my fallen trees in his yard, and Augustans were hesitant to give him a ride to the grocery store to get drinking water.

“The Publix is open so we walked all the way there carrying our bags,” Ramirez said. “In Mexico, a lot of people offer [rides to others]. Not here. We are completely on our own.”

Anyone with questions or concerns about the lifted water advisory should contact 311 using the mobile app.

This story was updated to add a video.

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