Jasper Weathers Storms

Jasper County dodged a bullet when Hurricane Helene blew through Thursday evening/Friday morning with the county having many downed trees and some minor flooding, but nothing compared to our neighbors in South Georgia, Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.

Jasperites are now gearing up to help those neighbors. by sending donations to affected areas. Many people here have loved ones in affected regions, and the devastation is so severe that most everyone recognizes that it could have been us, so let us help our neighbors out.

Christy Wyatt with Bluebirds for Hope has collected a trailer load of donations and taken it to North Carolina, and will take another when it’s filled. Donations may be taken to the old Champion’s store anytime.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with Enon Baptist Church to get donations also to North Carolina. Mattison Trucking is sending trucks to the Augusta and Dublin area, and Piedmont Academy has sent supplies to a school in Vidalia. No one has asked the paper to promote their cause, so there may be others of which we are not aware.

Ingles headquarters are in Asheville, N.C. and the affiliates are without support from that store; unable to change prices, process debit cards or other electronic forms of payment. That problem may exist a while as the headquarters were hit hard.

Locally, about 100 people in Monticello were without power Friday for several hours and about 400 Georgia Power customers from Shady Dale to Farrar were without power for some 18 hours. There were other localized outages, but nothing more widespread.

Trees were down across the county with the local rescue service spending many hours Thursday night and Friday removing trees from roads. Public works employees and sheriff’s deputies were also out helping with the storm, and electrical workers responded where needed to restore service.

Jackson Lake Road was closed for some time as it was flooded, but re-opened before the weekend was out.

Jasper County Emergency Management Agency Director Ed Westbrook said the eye of Helene passed over Jasper Count about 6 a.m. Friday. although trees were down from as early as noon Thursday, the vast majority were through the night Thursday and Friday.

Jasper County Fire/Rescue Chief Chris Finch said they had four fire engines, and three quick response vehicles along with a pick-up truck ready to roll Thursday evening. There were two-to -three people per apparatus, and they had 17 chain saws.

Twenty-seven deaths in Georgia have been attributed to the storm, with many more across the path of Helene.