LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — As of Friday evening, more than 8,000 people across Central Georgia are still without power following Hurricane Helene, according to the U.S. Power Outage Map.
In the last week, tens of thousands more experienced outages, and families have lost out on refrigerated food because of it.
People in Laurens County are still working to restore power to the area. They are still cutting down fallen trees, and many are regaining power.
"We had a power outage for five days, so we lost the food of course," Lucille Wade said.
She and Andrea Wade say they lost no small amount.
"We've got four freezers and they're all jam packed with food now. I don't know why," Wade said.
They were able to go get food and cook outdoors for the time being, but to replace some other items they visited a distribution line where folks could pick up meals and other goods with help from the 116th Air Control Wing based at Robins Air Force Base.
Wade says they are grateful for the support from FEMA, the Red Cross and the other agencies supporting their community.
Other people stood in the distribution line to replenish for other people.
"This whole entire situation is not something anybody expected, so to be able to help people that we don't want to know is great," Raven Domini said.
Now, The State Department of Human Services is also lending a hand. You can request to replace your snap benefits, and hundreds of people have already signed up in Laurens County.
Here's how it works:
- You had to receive snap benefits in September.
- You had to lose power for at least four hours due to Hurricane Helene.
- You have 10 days to apply from the date when you lost food.
However, most Central Georgia counties have until October 25 to apply. This includes Bleckley, Dodge, Hancock, Jefferson, Johnson, Laurens, Montgomery, Telfair, Treutlen, Washington, Wheeler and Wilcox.
DHS says you'll get your replacement benefits within 10 days.
In Laurens County you can visit the county DHS office to pick up a form in person. You can also fill one out online without needing to call the state office. Click here for the link.
RELATED: Georgia SNAP recipients can request replacement benefits for food lost due to Helene outages