DUBLIN, Ga. — So many power lines throughout Georgia were destroyed from Helene, leaving linemen with a huge task to tackle. It's been over a week since Helene went right through Dublin, and even on Sunday, linemen like Jason Greear were still putting in many hours to restore power in Laurens County.
"Usually 16 to 19 hours a day. Somewhere in that area," Greear said.
Greear and his team of ten linemen came from Innercounty Electric in Missouri to help repair Laurens County over a week ago. He said they plan to stay here until Wednesday.
"We've seen where we're working is not as bad as some places that we drove through, but it's still been torn down," Greear said.
He said working in Laurens County is the best they've ever been treated while helping a community.
A group of local women have been feeding them hot meals, washing their laundry, and Pleasant Hill Baptist Church has given them a comfortable place to take showers and rest at night. It makes it easier for them to be away from home for long stretches of time.
"It's not easy missing ball games. Missed my anniversary. Missed my mom's birthday. I mean- you miss things," Greear said.
Local linemen from Little Ocmulgee EMC, like Levi Thomas, said it's been so useful having more helping hands in town.
"I think we've got guys from Missouri, Texas, all over- all over the southeast, all over the country," Thomas said.
Thomas lives in Cadwell, and said they've been working nonstop to help their neighbors get back to normal.
"The hardest thing for me about this, that I will say is seeing our neighbors affected the way they are. And you know, seeing, seeing their struggles," Thomas said.
Even with the outside help, it's been almost 20-hour days for a lot of the linemen.
"We wanted to be able to pick up as many customers as possible, quickly and easily as possible. So that's kind of why we jumped around for a little bit, till our help started coming in," Thomas said.
It's not easy work. Thomas worked for five days without power at his own home in town. But he said it's worth it to support the people, who have kept his team going since Helene.
"This has definitely been a group effort. It's not just the linemen, it's not just the right-away men, it's not just the sheriffs department, it's not just the fire department. You know our wives, and our mothers they've carried us a long ways. We wouldn't be where we- these women that are here- we wouldn't be as far ahead as we are today if it wasn't for them. I'll certainly say that. They've been- we look like the muscles, but they've been the backbone,"
And while Dublin power teams are helping in Laurens County, over 100,000 customers are still without power right now in Georgia.
A couple thousand of those people without power live in Central Georgia.
You can view where those counties are here.