Sumter Regional close to full service

Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus will be back open for full-service business starting tomorrow. Since a tornado ripped through the town March 1st, 2007, the facility has been able to provide only urgent care out of tents and modular buildings. Now the hospital will be able to offer the full menu of services--surgical to inpatient--in its 76-bed facility. A permanent replacement hospital will be opened in 2010 after ground is broken in October. Last March, the storms that swept through Georgia killed nine people in Sumter, Taylor, and Baker counties--accounting for more than 210-million dollars in damage.

Official faces animal cruelty charges

Investigators have found the bones of scores of horses on land in Sumter County, South Carolina once owned by the family of a South Carolina official. Now James Trexler is charged with mistreating horses in that state as well as Georgia. Trexler is South Carolina's Assistant Agriculture Commissioner. Trexler's mother and brother have also been arrested after 30 horses were found starving at the family's land in Jefferson County, about 40 miles from Augusta.

Twister-hit hospital selling bricks for new building

Destroyed vehicle in SRH parking lot. Hospital is in the background, March 2, 2007. (Dave Bender)

The hospital destroyed in a tornado that ripped through Americus nearly a year ago is for sale - one brick at a time.

Sumter Regional Hospital is selling bricks from the building ripped apart by the March 1st, 2007, storm to help pay for a new hospital. For months, doctors treated more than 5,400 patients in eight counties in tents set up near the hospital.

Since then, the facility has operated in a temporary structure.

Basic medical triage services were held in several tents like these, set up in the hospital's parking lot. March 2, 2007. (Dave Bender)

The bricks go for $25, $50 and $100 each. For more information, contact the hospital's marketing department at (229) 928-4000.

(Dave Bender)
The tornadoes killed nine people in Sumter, Taylor and Baker counties, and caused more than 210 million dollars in damage, demolishing dozens of Georgia homes and businesses.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the twister and its aftermath.

(The Associated Press)

Sumter Co: Smokey Bear goes to school

Shown: “Smokey Bear,” (Ranger Brandon Albritton) greeting students at Sumter Primary School.

For over 50 years, “Smokey Bear,” has symbolized fire safety and prevention. “Smokey” appeared at Sumter County Primary School on Friday, and warned kids about the threat of fire – especially in light of the severe drought afflicting the state.

Georgia Forest Representative, Mark Shutters, was also there, and met with re-K students at Sumter Primary, shared Georgia fire statistics and screened a short video aimed at instilling fire prevention.

"The tragic fire in South Georgia and Florida, in the Okefenokee Swamp, burned over 600,000 acres, 500,000 of these acres were in Georgia. This was started from a careless spark and this event should make us all more aware of fire prevention," Shutters said.

Click the links for more GPB News reports about wildfires and the drought.

Sumter Co.: Chicago firm mulling $30M plant

A Chicago food-processing firm may relocate to the Sumter Co. area, according to The Americus-Sumter County Industrial Development Authority (IDA).

IDA Executive Director David Garriga told reporters that the deal could mean several hundred jobs and a possible $30 million investment in the next few years. Garriga made the announcement at the group's meeting on Monday.

$28M for tornado recovery

Georgia will have access to $28-million state and federal relief funds to help recover from March tornadoes. Today Governor Sonny Perdue announced the money for eligible people and communities in Sumter and surrounding counties in southeast Georgia. 15 counties hit by tornadoes March 1st received a Presidential Disaster Declaration. One tornado destroyed Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus. Nine people died in the storms.

Click here for a breakdown of where the aid is going, and more GPB coverage of the twisters that swept through southwest Georgia.

Sumter Co.: Two survive plane crash

A pilot and a passenger were hurt when their single-engine plane crashed Wednesday morning in Sumter County.

Americus Fire and Emergency Services dispatched vehicles to the field where the crash occurred, according to the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper.

The Sumter County Sheriff's Office said both were taken to Flint River Hospital where they are listed in serious condition.

Sumter, Taylor Co. tornado survivors getting more help

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is awarding $471,000 dollars to Georgia's Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases.

The funds will go toward extending a crisis counseling project for survivors of the tornado that devastated Sumter and Taylor counties March first.

Since the storm, hundreds of people have sought help overcoming psychological stress disorders. Many report suffering from feelings of despondency and helplessness.

Jeannette David, a mental health planner from the Department of Human Resources explains how outreach coordinators aid residents, providing them, "with information on how to cope, how to deal with the that stresses they're experiencing; and to let them know that, probably, any upset that they have or any stresses that they might be feeling is – normal, because they're reacting to an abnormal situation...”

The funding will continue until April, 2008.

More information is available on the survivor helpline at 1-800-342-7843.

Emergency responders reflect on tornadoes

Tornadoes were at the top of the agenda today at the Governor's Emergency Management Conference in Savannah. Sumter County emergency officials told colleagues from across the state about the steep challenges they faced three months ago when deadly twisters struck.

For example -- nine emergency operators were handling 400 911 calls an hour from seven counties. Americus police and firefighters lost radio communications for up to three hours. Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, which serves eight counties, was nearly destroyed by a direct hit from a tornado.

Since then, Sumter County officials say they have made improvements such as adding a phone bank to the 911 center … and getting backup generators for radio systems.

Sumter County tornado aid tops $11M

Path of March 1 tornado through Americus, GA.
Click on image for larger view. (Dave Bender)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) say that over $11.1 million in federal disaster aid has been approved for area residents, The Americus Times-Recorder reports.

The Disaster Loan Outreach Center located in Sumter County will close Wednesday, May 2. The center was set up in the wake of the lethal tornado that mauled Americus and other areas in southwestern Georgia on March 1.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), in a press release urges disaster victims to "visit the Center before the closing to obtain one-on-one assistance and information about SBA's disaster assistance program."

The Center is located at:
John Pope Industrial Center - Business Expansion Department.
South Georgia Technical College
900 South GA Tech Parkway
Americus, GA 31709
Open: Monday-Wednesday
Hours: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Closes: Wednesday, May 2 at the close of business

More information about the SBA's Disaster Loan Programs is available here: http://www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance

Overturned vehicle at Sumter Regional Hospital,
ravaged by tornado's winds.
Click on image for larger view. (Dave Bender)