Augusta recovery tops $12 million as city assesses more damage

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Warren Road Recreation Center is open for election business, but only after the city went to work to repair damage from Helene.

“We had a lot of damage done to a lot of our community centers Warren Road being the hardest hit of course you know surrounded by trees nice park area, so we had a few trees that fell around the building of course that’s one of our early voting sites for we have to react right away,” said Interim Central Services Director Ron Lampkin.

Augusta commissioners reacting again, approving another $5.6 million for recovery.

This is to cover the costs of damage to city property and pay contractors who hauled this storm debris from city streets in the first few days after the storm.

“It was a lot of damage. This storm was very severe, it was a lot more severe than what we experienced in the 2014 ice storm. It left more debris and it damaged more properties, of course, including our properties,” said City Administrator Tameka Allen.

Those properties include city cemeteries where the gates are still locked at Cedar Grove due to the storm damage.

Magnolia Cemetery is closed but a look inside shows it suffered extensive damage, how much is not exactly known, but the city getting outside help to gauge Helene’s impact.

“I work for the Georgia Forestry Commission,” said Seth Hawkins of the Georgia Forestry Commission. “We’re here helping the city out, they called for some state resources to come help with the damage assessment from this situation we haven’t crunch the exact numbers just got done with the assessment I mean well over 100 trees.”

Augusta has already approved almost $7 million to remove debris piles off city streets. That makes more than $12 million so far, not counting the cemeteries.

“So, we’ve got to spend what we got to we don’t really have a choice at this point,” said Commissioner Catherine Smith McKnight.

City leaders are anticipating that all the costs of recovery so far will be 100 percent reimbursed by FEMA.

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