Governor visits Albany; FEMA assistance is approved

ALBANY — Gov. Nathan Deal visited Southwest Georgia for the second time in just over two weeks on Wednesday, again to see the ravages of a natural disaster. On his way to Cook County, the governor learned that FEMA had approved Albany’s request for federal disaster assistance for the Jan. 2 storm damage.

The Trump administration also said it would expedite Deal’s request for federal help with the deadly Jan. 22 tornadoes.

Deal and at least 14 members of the regional legislative delegation flew into the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport, where he and other officials took a helicopter trip over east Albany, which was hit hard by a tornado Sunday morning — just three weeks after another storm ravaged the middle of of the city.

The Jan. 2 storm contributed in one Albany fatality, while the Jan. 22 tornadoes killed four people in Dougherty County and 11 others in the Southwest and South Central Georgia regions.

“It’s hard to describe what I was seeing because my first visit it was on the ground and it was a more confined area in regard to the path the tornado took. From the air, as I was today, the tornado’s path is clean and whatever was in that path was either leveled or severely damaged.” Deal said when asked the difference between his two visits. “On the first tour I saw a lot of trees down and a lot of homes that were damaged by tree falls. But the severity of this latest storm was because it traveled along the ground as opposed to the first one, which appeared to be more up in the air.

“We took a helicopter tour over some of the devastation. Obviously, we couldn’t go everywhere, but it is almost breathtaking and it’s amazing we did not have more loss of life that actually occurred. We are thankful for that. There is a lot of activity on the ground in terms of in terms of chainsaw crews, in fact we passed over one area where it appeared there were a lot of DNR vehicles and chainsaw crews that were attempting to clear the trees in the particular area we were over.”

Deal then described the storm’s severity and cautioned that much of the damage was “long term.”

“We went over the Marine Depot and they, too, suffered some damage. Many homes, trailers, businesses, roofs were taken off. It was just a complete disaster in many parts of the area which we flew over. There is a lot of work to be done,” he said. “I’m told the state has resources of some 776 state workers that have been in the affected areas and about 322 of those are here in Dougherty County.

“We have a lot of people on the ground and they are working hard to bring it back to normality as soon as possible. But a lot of this is going to be long-term damage.”

As Deal spoke at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport early Wednesday afternoon, he had yet to receive confirmation of the state’s application for federal assistance from FEMA. That changed two hours later.

Deal said in a series of three tweets: “I’ve just been notified our first FEMA request for federal aid has been approved, including individual assistance for Dougherty Co. … I just spoke w/ @POTUS thanking him for approval of GA’s first FEMA request. … I’m also grateful for his commitment to expedite our 2nd request for federal aid from storms resulting in 15 deaths.”

U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, said he thought the approval of FEMA assistance will go a long way the region’s recovery effort.

“I’d like to thank the governor and the local responders particularly on the ground. They’ve been tremendous. I think that GEMA and now FEMA are positioned to really help with the recovery and we are going to do our dead level best to make sure that happens as soon as possible,” Bishop said. “Having two events within a few days, especially during a change in administration, complicates things.

“But this is a non-partisan event. It’s a community event and we are working to as hard as we can to help people recover.”

Georgia Emergency Management Agency Director Homer Bryson thought it was important for the governor to see the tornado damage from the air.

“I think the governor got to see the size and the scope of the damage. It’s pretty amazing to see. It’s going to take a lot of time, a lot of resources in a lot of different areas to get these communities back where they need to be,” Bryson said. “It will take state and federal involvement but also volunteers and private efforts too. And we are working with the locals to help coordinate and facilitate those volunteer efforts as best we can.”

By 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Albany Utilities reported that power had been restored to all but 520 customers. The outage locations were on the 600 block of Holly Drive, U.S. Highway 19 at Holly and Betty’s drives; the Mock Road/Sanborn area, and the Sylvester Road/Hill Road/Ashwood/Pine Glen Subdivision area. About 4,000 Mitchell EMC customers in neighboring Worth County were still without power Wednesday evening.