Habersham and Banks were the two hardest hit inland counties in the state
Life is slowly returning to normal in Habersham County two days after Tropical Storm Irma hit. The storm toppled hundreds of trees and power lines and littered the county with debris. This morning the sound of chain saws was joined by brooms and blowers clearing limbs, leaves and dirt from outside homes and businesses.
There’s a lot to clean up. Habersham and Banks were the two hardest hit inland counties in Georgia, according to State Rep. Terry Rogers. The Clarkesville resident and governor’s floor leader has been closely monitoring the storm and its aftermath. Habersham County remains under a state of emergency. That emergency declaration will help free up state and federal funds for cleanup and other storm-related relief, says Rogers.
In addition to coping with the sheer magnitude of the cleanup, officials had to deal with a situation that arose Tuesday night at Habersham Medical Center.
“They were starting to get low on the power end of things and (there was) a possible crisis with the water,” Rogers explains. “We reached out to the governor’s office and the governor reached out to Georgia Power.” Within hours, power to the hospital was restored. “Once we were aware of it, the governor’s office was gracious enough to help, but the credit goes to Georgia Power,” he insists. “Those guys worked long and hard.”
By mid-afternoon Wednesday the heart of downtown Demorest was back up and pumping. Electricity was restored to Piedmont College and the downtown district, including City Hall. That was welcome relief to many, including Demorest Water customers who were told to conserve water when the city’s pump stations lost power.
“The magnitude of the destruction from Irma presented us with obstacles unlike we have encountered before,” says Demorest City Manager Kristi Shead. “Restoring power to our water system is a priority during outages but during this particular event, the power companies haven’t had the resources to be able to get us back online as quickly as we had hoped. I have to offer up a big thank you to them, though, for all they are doing because I know they are working hard from our area all the way down to Florida. They are to be commended.”
Cornelia’s water plant and pumping stations also lost power. They were back up and running by early Wednesday. Clarkesville ran its water plant off of a generator. Clarkesville City Manager Barbara Kesler says, “we are still in good shape.”
Thousands remain without power in and around Habersham County. While some people are expressing their frustration over the power outages, Rogers urges patience. He, too, lost power at his home in Clarkesville but says he knows how hard crews are working.
“On the EMC side they’ve been phenomenal,” he says. “Locally these guys have been working around the clock. Great spirit. Combined with all of the county maintenance and DOT personnel, these guys are hard working. You’re looking at a situation that’s unprecedented.”
Gov. Nathan Deal will visit Habersham County Thursday as part of a state-wide tour of storm-ravaged areas. He’ll hold a press conference at the Habersham County Airport in Baldwin. Now Habersham will livestream the governor’s press conference on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nowhabersham/ beginning at 10:30 a.m.
