Xavier Riley woke up on his couch at about 4 a.m. Friday morning in a sweat. There was no air condition after the power went off during Hurricane Helene's roll through Georgia. Riley moved to his back bedroom inside a multi-unit Savannah mansion on 42nd street between Bee Road and Ash Street.
Five minutes later Riley heard crackles and a crash, jolting him and his dog off the bed. Soon he was peering out of his bedroom window with a flashlight to see that a 90-foot live oak tree had fallen onto the house.
"I was terrified it was going to keep coming down," Riley said. "That was my initial, first fear with it being so massive, like the biggest tree around."
Although Savannah was not in Helene's direct path, the storm brought peak 76 mph wind gusts and seven simultaneous tornado warnings in the area at one point Thursday evening. By Friday morning the sun was up, and winds speeds began to dissipate, bringing droves of Savannah residents to city streets surveying the damage.
Limbs, leaves and debris were strewn across streets from downtown squares―where a split tree limb on Lafayette Square obstructed portions of the roadway―across neighborhoods from Savannah's east side to western portions of the county. Some roads throughout the Ardsley Park, Parkside and Thomas Square neighborhoods had so much debris, entire roadways were closed.
As of 5 a.m. Friday, there were 55 trees down and 94 streets closed countywide, according to Chatham Emergency Management Agency statistics. Many residents said it was the worst storm damage seen since Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
Anne Tyree and Ramond Hrabec, who live at the corner of 45th and Habersham streets, said they lost power overnight for the first time since moving to the house in 2011. That included maintaining power during Matthew when a 90-foot live oak fell onto powerlines at the intersection.
Just a few houses down a tree had toppled over onto a pickup truck.
A few streets away at 49th and Abercorn streets, resident Frank Simmons witnessed the carnage. Simmons sat on his screen porch at about 1:30 a.m. when the "first blast" of wind came through and toppled a sweetgum tree on 49th Street. Within seconds a live oak at the corner of Abercorn Street fell onto the road.
"You can hear the big thumps, and you know the trees are coming down," Simmons said.
City crews were on the scene around 8 a.m., neighbors said. Randy Canady, who lives at the corner where the live oak fell, said he was impressed with how quickly city crews and contractors were cleaning the streets. The crews cleared the live oak from Abercorn Street by about 10 a.m., according to Simmons.
Canady and a host of about five others were working along 49th Street to clear the fallen sweetgum and debris while tree crews cleared major rights of way. One resident had a chainsaw cutting the sweetgum trunk into chunks while Canady and others carried the logs off the road.
"We were just trying to clear the road so people could get in and out," Canady said.
There were also signs of community service on Broughton Street, where Maple Street Biscuit Company served free coffee after choosing not to open Friday. Maple Street Biscuit is right across from the building occupied by Ordinary Pub and Free People, where the roof collapsed on upstairs dwelling units during the storm.
The partial building collapse threw glass shards into the streets―three windows were busted upstairs―and shut down Broughton Street between Barnard and Jefferson streets. By the time reporters reached the scene around 10 a.m., the city had already condemned the building, shown by multiple orange signs in the windows of Free People.
Bradley Phall, a manager at Maple Street Biscuit, said he arrived at the store at about 4:30 a.m. Friday morning. The company then made the decision not to open due to safety concerns. Still, they wanted to do something for the community, and Phall went through 14 batches of coffee by mid-morning, he said.
"We decided to go ahead and bring out some of our coffee and let people enjoy it," Phall said. "It's a little cool and breezy this morning, so maybe we can warm them up a little bit."
Evan Lasseter is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Hurricane Helene winds throw debris, trees across Savannah streets with clean up underway
Local News
