AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Two weeks after Helene hit our area, local businesses are left picking up the pieces.

We checked in with a couple of them who say despite what they were experiencing, it was important for them to get up and running so they could help others.

El Rey on Washington Road is running business as usual, but that was not the case a couple of days ago.

They were without power for 13 days and lost food in one of their coolers.

“Just to restock it. It was around 14 to 15 grand just to restock that one walking cooler. So, I can only imagine for a smaller business or someone who was already struggling. It’s going to be tough to get it back up and running again,” said owner, Ramiro Galvan.

Before Wednesday, they were operating in the parking lot out of their food truck serving first responders and linemen for free.

“We had our food truck, and it was full of police officers on this side and on the other end linemen waiting to get a hot meal. It was amazing. It was amazing that we were able to do that,” said Galvan.

Just like El Rey, other businesses found ways to help others, like the Earth Pantry.

They’re a grocery store located on Broad Street.

“We opened right away to make sure that we could get food to those who live downtown, and we also wanted to make sure we could reach the people in the community because I know a lot of the regular box stores were selling out of everything,” said Earth Pantry owner, Alexia Redman.

Despite not having internet and a boil water advisory in place, Redman says they were still able to work around this so people could get necessities.

“We were able to provide water from our sinks using the boiler along with cold soaking pasta, rice. We just liked being a safe haven, doing what we can because we know people were stressed out, struggling, worrying about how they were going to feed their kids,” she said.

Around the corner at Taco Cat, they say their main concern first was their employees and making sure they were okay.

“Last week was voluntary. We worked with the people who chose to show up. Some people couldn’t afford not to work so we offered them a space to be able to work,” said Director of Operations for Frog Hollow Hospitality Group, Breannah Newton.

She says giving people a place to come and eat is a priority for them.

“Creating a sense of normalcy for a lot of people is really important to us,” said Newton.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – It’s been two weeks now since Helene blew through our area and changed life as we know it.

14 days in, and it seems we’re getting better at adapting.

Some communities have recovered quickly from the damage, while others look like the storm just came through the other day.

If you drive around the CSRA, you’ll see what Hurricane Helene left behind.

Debris, downed power lines and even smashed cars. But several people say the scene looks a lot different than it did the day of the storm.

For many, instead of trees, it’s a tarp.

Roads that were blocked before are at least drivable.

Charles Bailey lives in North Augusta and says he and his wife are just trying to get back to normal.

“We’re starting to get groceries back in our refrigerator and freezer, and we’re just doing the cleanup of all the debris that’s left from the trees,” said Bailey.

But sounds he typically didn’t hear before have become all too familiar.

“Backing up, the beeping. Then, there’s gonna be a lot of chainsaws going for a while. It’s gonna be, like, humming to your ears,” he said.

He says normal for him is get the debris cleaned up.

“This is not normal. I mean, this is extraordinarily devastating. And to live with it. You just don’t want to live with it as long as possible,” said Bailey.

North Augusta says next week they will shift more towards clean-up.

Mayor Briton Williams says the debris left behind from power lines will be cleaned up by Dominion Energy.

For others in Augusta, they say they haven’t found their normal yet.

“I’m wondering how a lot of us are going to be able to put all of the pieces back together, being that we can barely go through the streets,” said Augusta resident Barbara Drane-Ealey.

Although the progress is slower than some may want, it’s still happening.

Richmond County started with nearly 94,000 outages, and Georgia Power now only shows 55.

“I think everybody is doing their best as far as circumstances go,” said Drane-Ealey.

North Augusta started with more than 14,000 outages and now has five homes without power.

Richmond County also says they are ramping up the amount of debris clean-up trucks every day.

But several say they know this will be a slow process and many areas may never look the same.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A local North Augusta teacher and pilot is working to help some of the people affected by Hurricane Helene in Georgia.

“The community really did everything. I’m just kind of the delivery driver at this point. I was overwhelmed by the support from the community, and so what turned into just me flying down there, has turned into a two-plane operation,” said Travis Spears.

Augusta Aviation even donated one of their planes and a pilot to help Spears due to the amount of donations received.

Spears will fly to Baxley, Ga., bringing non-profit food, water, camping stoves and tents for families there.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.