‘We have to come together’: Augusta leaders hold press conference after Hurricane Helene

From loss of power and water to blocked roads, Hurricane Helene had a big impact on Augusta. That’s what its leaders looked to address Friday.

Several of them held a press conference outside the Augusta Utilities building on Friday afternoon. The first to speak was Mayor Garnett Johnson.

“Our community has been deeply impacted,” Johnson said. “We didn’t anticipate this to happen, but it did. Just know that we have a great team that’s working with us to make sure we restore Augusta the way we expect it.”

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Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree said they started bringing in additional resources to help them at about 2 a.m. While there is no curfew, residents are asked to shelter in place as much as possible.

“If there’s not a necessary reason for you to leave your home, please stay in place,” Roundtree said. “First responders will try to get to you as quick as we can….but we have multiple vehicle accidents, trees down through out the city. This was a very impactful storm.”

Augusta Fire and EMA Chief Antonio Burden said they have requested additional resources like water for those without it and those resources are on the way. Tree crews are out trying to assist the fire department. Residents can place their yard debris on the curb and it will be picked up.

To address outages, Georgia Power is sending 1,000 workers who will be staged in the parking lot of the James Brown Arena. According to USA Today’s “Off the Grid” Outage tracker, more than 96,000 outages were reported on Friday.

Because of a heavy increase in call volume to 911, residents were encouraged to use 311 for non-life threatening emergency needs like a fallen tree. Welfare checks are being provided for concerned residents.

Georgia State Representative Brian Prince highlighted how the cleanup is going to require collaboration between different agencies and individuals.

“We have to come together in a time like this,” Prince said. “We’ll make sure we get through this, but we can only do it together.”