LOWNDES COUNTY, Ga. — Just over 24 hours after the worst of Helene tore through Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp was on the ground in south Georgia to give an update on the storm's aftermath. He and First Lady Marty Kemp spent Saturday morning touring the damage in Valdosta, one of Georgia's hardest-hit cities.
Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane near Perry, Florida late Thursday. The town is just two hours southwest of Valdosta. Helene traveled into south Georgia, where a powerful tropical storm with near-hurricane force winds barreled into the Peach State early Friday.
After touring the damage from the sky, the governor spoke from the Lowndes County Emergency Management Center on Saturday, describing how Hurricane Helene "spared no one," from a statewide perspective.
In the update, Kemp confirmed there are now 17 fatalities across the state, illustrating the heavy toll of Helene. Kemp quoted one state official who described how the storms "are taking the soul out of me."
"And I know that's how people are feeling down here," Kemp added, acknowledging another heavy hit for Valdosta -- which has suffered its fair share of weather-related tragedies in the past, including 2018's Hurricane Michael.
Kemp said Helene's impact on Georgia was apparent immediately and unlike any other storm the state has faced: "It literally look at look like a 250-mile tornado hit and it was a hurricane."
Now, as the state turns its efforts toward clean-up, officials are asking for patience.
The Kemps were joined by representatives of other Georgia state agencies, including GEMA Director Chris Stallings, Georgia National Guard Gen. Dwayne Wilson, Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper, and Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King for the briefing.
You can watch the press conference in the video players above and below. Scroll down for more information from the impacts of Helene.
Death toll from Helene in Georgia climbs to 17
On Saturday, Gov. Kemp announce the death toll in Georgia now stands at 17, up from 15 deaths just one day prior. Kemp highlighted a few of the casualties, some of them just small children, including:
- The death of a firefighter, Leon Davis, the Blackshear fire department assistant chief who died when a tree fell on his vehicle while responding to a call.
- A 27-year-old mother and her 1-month-old twin boys in Thompson, Georgia in McDuffie County near Augusta, who were killed when a tree fell on their home.
- A 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl in Washington County -- between Macon and Augusta -- who died when a tree fell on their home and trapped them inside a burning house.
- A 58-year-old man in Dublin, Georgia, off I-16 heading to Savannah, who died when a tree crashed into his home.
Kemp highlighted many other fatalities -- more than 40 -- in Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Flooding from Helene and storms before breaks rainfall record in Atlanta, Kemp says
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Kemp said a combination of rainfall from a storm system ahead of Helene, plus the hurricane, set a new record for 48-hour rainfall for the capitol city, a stat which the Georgia Climate Office confirmed online.
The previous record for rainfall in a 48-hour period was 9.5 inches, set all the way back in 1868. The combo of storms dumped nearly a foot of rain (11.12) inches of rain over two days.
It's triggered flash flooding and mud slides in the northern parts of the state, Kemp said.
Roadway cleanup efforts for Helene underway in Georgia
Right now, Kemp, GDOT Commissioner McMurray and GEMA manager Chris Stallings said the focus is on clearing the roadways across the state to allow for emergency help to access communities impacted by debris. Kemp said he expects for all of the state routes to have at least one lane passable by Sunday. More than 10 chainsaw crews from the Georgia Forestry Commission were dispatched across the state.
Kemp said there will be additional contractors coming in to start working on other roadways across the state. Meanwhile, he said it's also gonna take several days to continue to get traffic signals back. " There's literally thousands of those out across the state," Kemp said.
All urged non-essential people to stay off the roads to help with those clean-up efforts.
"I understand that you want to see the damage, maybe you've got a property somewhere you want to investigate. I think that's extremely important," Stallings said. "But if we're blocking those -- that one lane -- so that we can't get fire and EMS to our workers that are out there supporting you or get power teams through there. That's extremely important that you give us that lane."
Georgia National Guard deployed
Kemp called up 1,000 Georgia National Guard troops for Helene, many of which were positioned in Valdosta; 200 of those guardsman were in Valdosta and the other 800 of those are deployed strategically across the state. But, Gen. Dwayne Wilson said he anticipates that number will grow.
Wilson said some of the missions underway include clearing debris; moving critical supplies like food, water and generators; and coordinating representatives in other hard-hit areas of the state.
"This is hard work though," Wilson admitted. "I would ask that everybody just be patient."
Power, cellular outages in Georgia
As of the news conference, Kemp said Georgia Power and EMC officials were each reporting about 500,000 customers without power. Those outages have been slowly coming down from their peaks, but both agencies said it will take time: it took seven to eight days to get all the power restored from Hurricane Idalia.
Both said it could me a matter of a couple weeks to get all power restored, however crews have been mobilized from nearly a dozen states and are working 16-hour shifts to achieve restorations. However, because other neighboring states were also impacted by Helene, it is complicating response efforts.
Meanwhile, cell signal was also severely impacted in Georgia, Kemp said: Verizon had nearly three dozen non-operational towers and AT&T had about 7% of their towers out, according to the governor.
Georgia agriculture hit hard by Helene
Kemp said he expects the impact from Helene to be more costly than 2018 Hurricane Michael, whose relief efforts came in at nearly $2.5 billion. The governor said the state has seen more than 100 poultry facilities either damaged or totally destroyed. Another more than a dozen dairies have been affected. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said there was also significant damage to the state's cotton and tree nut crops, as well as timber industry.
"Literally every commodity in this state has been damaged by this storm," Kemp said.
U.S. Congressman Austin Scott, who is the vice chair on the Agriculture Committee, said he aims to get relief to Georgia farmers in a "very bipartisan manner" similar to the way that relief was provided for Hurricane Michael.
"You will see your Georgia delegation that represents these areas out there together, making sure that the American citizens know that when we get back to Washington, there will be a bipartisan disaster relief package passed," he said.
Meanwhile, Harper asked for farmers to document the damage so the state can understand the totality of the disaster.
"Document, document, document," he said. "I know we want to hurry up and clean up. But the more we can document the damage, the better information we have to get the needed resources and the help that we can from our federal partners and others to be able to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible."
Assistance for communities
Kemp said there are currently about a dozen shelters around the state. As of Friday, Kemp said there were about 1,100 people in those shelters.
Meanwhile, state officials are deploying kitchens and bringing in other commodities to make sure there is an adequate food supply in hard hit areas. Guardsmen and women will also be out delivering by hand if needed.
For those that need clean-up assistance, there is a hotline available to call: 844-965-1386