Gov. Deal extends Dougherty emergency order until midnight Wednesday

ALBANY — In order to give Georgia Emergency Management Agency officials a clear picture of the community’s needs in the wake of two powerful storm systems that hit the area in a three-week period, Dougherty County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas went on a tour of severely damaged areas with the agency’s top two officials Monday: Director Homer Bryson and Deputy Director Gen. Thomas Moore.

Cohilas announced that he would be touring the county with the GEMA officials at Monday’s commission meeting.

“We’ve had a number of these meetings,” Cohilas said after the board completed dual business and work sessions Monday morning. “It allows GEMA officials to see for themselves the problems we’re facing as a community. It also will be beneficial, I believe, in requesting that Gov. Deal extend the state of emergency in our community past the (11:59 p.m. Monday) deadline.

“I’m certain Emergency Management Agency Director (Ron) Rowe has already made that request.”

At 4:30 p.m. Monday, Gov. Nathan Deal signed an executive order extending the state of emergency in Dougherty through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.

During Monday’s commission meeting, Cohilas praised Dougherty County Police Department officers who rode through mobile home parks threatened by the impending bad weather (which spawned a tornado that decimated two such parks and other homes in the southeastern portion of the county, leaving five dead) and warned occupants of the imminent danger.

“During one tour of the impacted area, I talked with a gentleman who told me he owned two trailers in one of the trailer parks,” Cohilas said. “He showed me where they were located, and both of them were just pancaked. I asked him if he’d been there during the tornado, and he said that he’d left when a DCP officer rode through and announced on a megaphone that residents would be safer leaving the park.

“Those police officers saved this man’s life and many others who chose to get out of that area.”

Cohilas said an extension of the emergency declaration in Dougherty County remains a priority for the community’s recovery efforts.

“In order for us to meet the needs of our citizens, we need to continue receiving the help that we’re getting from GEMA and other state agencies,” the commission chairman said. “Even with their help now, we’ve about exhausted our resources.”