First responders, public safety and Habersham County employees have worked tirelessly since Friday to prepare for and help support citizens during Winter Storm Izzy.
“Our preparations began before the storm even started,” Habersham County Public Information Officer Carolyn Gibson said. “Once E- 911 Director Lynn Smith started seeing updates about a potential winter weather scenario, we sprung into action with plans to implement extra public safety, public works and public information.”
First responders were out in the storm, helping people with car issues, getting trees off of cars, homes, buildings and roadways.
“As always, our public safety folks step up and handle whatever is thrown at them,” Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell tells Now Habersham. “Running chainsaws, pulling limbs, helping people when they break down or have a wreck— the thing to remember is the ones out working also have families at home with no power just like most everyone else.”
The county’s public safety departments battled power outages that impacted their ability to communicate with one another, treacherous roads and understaffing during the storm. Gibson says that understaffing, especially while the county works to make roadways safe for drivers again, has been one of their biggest challenges.
“As is the case with most of the country, we are facing a labor shortage in Habersham County. Due to this, we have been short-staffed but our staff has really stepped up to the plate and shown incredible teamwork and perseverance,” Gibson said. “We currently have over 50 open positions, many of them are in the departments that are necessary during a winter weather event.”
Even with the struggles they faced as they continue to keep Habersham County safe, the support community members showed first responders and county employees helped them make it through the long days and nights over the course of the storm’s effects.
“The outpour of community support, especially during this winter weather storm has been incredible,” Gibson said. “From a meal organized by Chairman Palmer, Renee and William Watts, Christina and Commissioner Ty Akins, to the donation of over 100 meals by Wolf Creek Barbecue to our first responders and employed personnel during the winter weather storm, to Dairy Queen providing free delivery to our aquatic center to host emergency personnel and Papa John’s of Cornelia offering discounted pizzas for our employees, the outpour of community support has been incredible.”
Terrell was moved by the county’s, and community’s, efforts to support its public safety departments.
“Our commissioners have really stepped up and took care of everyone working in the weather,” he said. “Local business always provide [for] and support all of our public safety and road department people working in the weather, and we are extremely grateful.”
Gibson says that the support of the Habersham County community and the dedication of county employees was a blessing during a stressful situation.
“Our biggest takeaway from this storm is that we are blessed to have an amazing community filled with wonderful and understanding people and some of the best employees in the state of Georgia,” Gibson said. “We are so incredibly proud of the way that our employees came together during the storm and the support we received from Habersham County residents.”
County employees, like HCSO PIO Kevin Angell, say that the departments owe much of the success of weathering the storm to Gibson.
“Carolyn was the hub of communications for multiple departments engaged in this response,” Angell said. “Not only did she get out community emails and social media posts, she communicated to each agency all updates so that we were on the same page with the same message. She did this both in advance of the event and around the clock. Carolyn’s efforts were paramount in our multi-agency event response and it highlights her professionalism. She was key to the success!”
Their work is far from over, though. Roads still need to be cleared, and the county needs to assess what recovery efforts are needed to move forward with repairing damage caused by the storm. Habersham citizens can help move those efforts along by staying off of roads as they’re cleared and dropping a kind word to those keeping them safe.
“Thank an emergency service personnel or Habersham County road employee if you see them,” Gibson says. “Your words mean the world to them, they are public servants and they come to work every day to serve the citizens of this great county.”
