Columbia County residents seek access to resources post-Helene

EVANS, Ga. (WJBF) – Columbia County is seeing multiple opportunities for clean up, but some say, not as many opportunities to hear from local officials about what’s going on.

That’s still due to the power outages some are experiencing.

I spoke with a few people living on Hickory Drive who say they had to hear from family outside of the country about disaster relief resources.

Peggy Ertz tells me she learned about community resources from her sister-in-law.

“She’s on vacation in Paris, she told us all the news. She told us you can take cans to Costco to get gas, she told us there were people with water containers, she told us they were gonna turn the water off, but then Columbia County said they weren’t gonna shut the water off, but the water did go off yesterday.”

But while Ertz and her husband try to clean the mess storm Helene left behind, she says she recognizes other people’s situation.

“We have no trees on our property, everything fell from behind us which is devastated back there. So, as upset as we were, we look at other people’s stuff and we’re like ‘okay this is fine’, cause if you see the rest of this neighborhood, it’s devastated.”

“It became a job to get through the door, cause it laid across the backyard, across the patio to the main entrance, but before they came along, chainsaws and everything else came out but we got through it…” Michelle Willamson said.

Despite the circumstances Helene has left those within the CSRA, Michelle Williamson says it did not break the heart of this community.

“I do see people pulling together through services, power companies, mayors, senators– I’ve been hearing on the news. So, we are grateful to have people that are trying to pull it together now, instead of pushing apart but I’m gonna keep praying.”

Columbia County officials are collecting essential items to distribute later this week. You can drop off between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at The Market.

Officials have also been releasing updates at least once per day since the storm hit.  You can find them on the Columbia County, GA Government Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ColumbiaCtyGa

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