Many residents in need of gas after the hit of Hurricane Helene

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Since Hurricane Helene hit the CSRA, leaving devastation in its wake, people have been in search of fuel, and today, many were able to get some.

With only a few gas stations open and running, many are waiting hours to get fuel for their cars or generators.

“Everybody is low on gas then finally when the sun came up and we could see everything first thought was Helene did their big one with this,” said Sava Wheeler, a customer.

The people I spoke with knew the hurricane was coming but did not expect the damage that would happen Thursday night into Friday early morning.

“I heard it was coming, but I was, oh, it is not going to be nothing, so I passed the gas station,” said LaChelle Watt Hickman, a customer.

Many people needing gas are trying to get to a safe place because fallen trees have damaged their homes.

“My idea is to get out of town because my home has a tree on top of it. It has a hole in the roof. Yeah, I’m just trying to get to a hotel where we can all get showered up and possibly get something to eat,” said Abdul Rodgers, a customer.

As well as some going to stay with friends since they are out of power.

“We’ve been up since about seven this morning looking everywhere getting gas and I ran out of gas looking to get gas,” said Jeremiah Johnson, a customer.

Others came to Augusta to escape the worst of the storm but were stuck trying to get gas so they could return to their houses.

“I left my actual home because it got worse on that end of the CSRA so I came over here and didn’t think it would get this bad,” said Nesman Davis, a customer.

Others came from Columbia County needing gas for their generators because they do not plan on leaving.

“There’s no power poles up at all, so it’s going to be really, really difficult to understand when we’re going to get power back, so that’s why we got gas for the generator,” said Meredith Smith, a customer.

According to a Kroger employee, they will close at 7 or 8 Saturday night and open back up Sunday, hopefully at 6 a.m., but it could be later.

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