DUBLIN, Ga. — Many areas in Laurens County are still without power and water, five days after Hurricane Helene passed through Central Georgia.
The Dublin school system fed around 800 children to help reduce the pressure on the community. Victoria Crawford, who works on the nutrition staff with Dublin city schools, understands the burden on parents right now.
"My baby son and my daughter lives at home and they've been good," Crawford said. "They haven't been really complaining and stuff, but I'm teaching them how to be survival mode."
Crawford says she was taught survival skills such as using pool water as water to flush toilets and clean.
She said she was starting to feel stir crazy, so she decided to come serve meals.
"Despite it all, I enjoy helping my community, my people," she says. "It makes me feel good. It made me feel appreciative of my job and it made me feel very appreciative of what we're doing for the community."
Ashley-Michelle Thublin is the director of strategic and crisis communications in Dublin.
She says they were one of the first spots to have the power restored after Hurricane Helene.
"Immediately our school and our district leaders were thinking, 'What can we do to give back?' Even though of course, we still have staff members without power," Thublin said. "We knew that we had its resource here and we just wanted to be a blessing to our community."
Vanessa O'Conner came to Dublin to see her boyfriend and also has no power and water.
She went to Buckeye Park in East Dublin to get water.
"We come up here once or twice everyday depending on if we have to wash clothes or not," she says.
O'Conner says even her mom comes from Mount Vernon to wash her clothes and get clean water.
She says they both hope the power will turn back on but for now they are grateful for a water source.