South Georgia’s devastation – through the eyes of an Augustan

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Nearly half of Lowndes County is still without power, two days after Hurricane Idalia swept through Florida and south Georgia.

Lowndes County is seeing trees, power lines and wind damage on just about every road. After two days, Red Cross says volunteers say they can finally move around the city a bit better, but it’s revealing there are more people in need.

Meanwhile, we’re getting a look at the damage as seen through the eyes of an Augustan – Susan Everitt with the Red Cross, who went to the area to help with the recovery efforts.

The Valdosta area got the brunt of Idalia’s damage in the Peach State, Gov, Brian Kemp visited to take a look.

“It really is a workaround in a situation for right now,” said Everitt.

Idalia made landfall at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday in the Big Bend of Florida, but it wasn’t long before it reached Valdosta.

Everitt, executive director of the Red Cross in Augusta, was already there after the chapter sent five people to help.

“When you can physically see rain going sideways rather than down. That’s that’s a strange experience there,” she said.

She said it’s been humbling.

And now the Red Cross is sending more people to assess damage and get the full scope of what’s going on.

Everitt initially thought the Red Cross would be there for two weeks, but now she says it could be longer.

By nightfall, Everitt said 95% of Lowndes County was without power.

A little less than half, still in the dark.

With trees and power lines down on nearly every corner, it’s hard to get to everyone right away.

“I did talk to a lady just last night, they said it was last night trees were finally cut. They were landlocked within their neighborhood. This is a neighborhood of about 300 houses because trees were on every road, no one could get in and no one could get out. That’s one of the areas that we’re taking to distribute items,” she said.

Everitt says they are bringing in more crews with everything from food to cleaning supplies.

“We have a shelter open here. We also are bringing in four different fixed sites today. Because we know sometimes people don’t want to go to a shelter, but they still need supplies,” said Everitt.

Idalia moved through Lowndes County Wednesday morning wiping out all of the residential, commercial, and some emergency power sources. Leaving many with no food or gas for hours. The damage left houses irreparable, roadways blocked and stores closed for hours, including local gas stations.

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Many had to travel elsewhere to get food and gas to survive the still very uncertain damages of the hurricane. On Thursday morning, the streets were flooded with people traveling from near and far, as Valdosta is the nearest city to many of the surrounding areas.

The nearest available hotels are over 80 miles away in Thomasville, leaving families to worry about living arrangements and gas in preparation for work and school if power is restored by Tuesday.

Things are improving, but it’s slow going.

The roads are still treacherous, Everitt says.

Even with more crews the county still needs more help. So she’s calling on everyone reading, right now.

“One of them is to donate blood. The second one is provide a financial donation. A lot of people’s homes are damaged, and they’re going to need that additional financial assistance that we can provide to them,” she said.

It serves as a reminder, it’s not just another disaster.

“I think there’s something called disaster fatigue and people like, Oh, it’s just another hurricane. Well, to the people that are here on the ground, it is their lives. It’s not just another hurricane. We encourage people just to do whatever they can,” she said.

JaTariya Thomas, a Valdosta resident, recalled the terror as the hurricane arrived.

She was in the living room with her husband and kids when they heard a loud bang in the back of their house. They discovered that a tree had fallen right on their oldest daughter’s bed.

Then another tree fell near their living room.

“Nobody was prepared for this. You ride through neighborhoods, there are so many trees down, so many power lines down. These are homes that these trees have ripped through and nobody was prepared for this,” said Thomas. “I’ve been here 20 years and usually all we get is some wind and rain, but I’ve never seen anything like this in Valdosta.”

At least most of the people survived.

But hours into the cleanup, one Good Samaritan was killed by a falling tree as he tried to help.

If you would like to help, visit the American Red Cross website.

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