South Geogia emergency managements officials are watching river levels, but are hopeful the worst of the recent flooding is over.
Disaster officials on South Georgia's Satilla River say, they believe the river can handle the two or more inches of rain that fell in recent days. The flooding that began on April fifth forced dozens from their homes in South Georgia. Most are back at home now with the river below flood stage.
Piece County Emergency Management Deputy Leonard Roberts says, the main unresolved flood issue is roads. "We've actually got to get some bigger pipes in here in order to replace them," Roberts says. "There are approximately seven roads that are going to be closed for another couple of weeks until we can get the pipes in here."
The most recent rains did stall some repair work in Camden County, though Red Cross officials there said few home-owners contacted them for shelter. Federal and state officials have been in to assess the damage and U.S. Congressman Jack Kingston is calling for a quick disaster declaration.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Some flooded roads still out in South Georgia
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Red Cross Seing Dip in Donations
President Barack Obama declared March as Red Cross month. But Georgians struggling to make ends meet are finding it harder to donate to the organization.
March typically heralds the beginning of tornado season in Georgia. It’s a time when the Red Cross would normally gear up for disasters with blood and blankets, medical and moral aid and relief.
Like they did last month when twisters mauled areas in southern Georgia.
But Mari Wright of the Red Cross’s Albany branch says donations in her area have slowed to a trickle:
"Many of our regular contributors, that would, say, donate a hundred dollars, are now giving us $25 dollars. People that were giving us $25 dollars or less… can’t give us anything… so we are probably at 85 – maybe 90 percent down, and that’s a considerable amount. It truly is."Wright won’t reveal how much money 85 percent is, but it was considerable enough to almost shut down operations a few weeks ago.
That was until the United Way, local businesses and individual donors came through at the last minute with cash.
Red Cross officials in more urban areas, like Mitzi Oxford, who heads the West Central Georgia chapter in Columbus, say a larger donor base and funding from the national office helps - to an extent.
She says, however, that smaller donors - the mainstay of their fundraising - have cut back by some 60 percent. She gives the scenario of an average couple mulling expenses at the kitchen table:
"…and they’re saying, 'are we going to pay for our medicine this month, or are we going to eat?' Those people who might have sent a five dollar donation last month, this month may send a dollar or nothing – because they can’t afford to."Not that larger donors aren’t hurting either, she adds:
"…so the donation that, two years ago, or after [Hurricane] Katrina, would have been a million dollars - this past year was a hundred thousand. That’s a big difference."Oxford says, however, that fewer, smaller donations don’t necessarily equal lessened services to the public.
Her office relies on dozens of experienced volunteers to help carry the load – even as that workload gets a little heavier.
Oxford says the Red Cross is focusing on getting potential donors to their websites, to make giving a donation fast and easy.
Both Wright and Oxford say that, in the same way people have come to expect that the Red Cross will always be there - they’re now asking that the public be there for them.
Click here for more GPB coverage about the Red Cross, and here for more coverage about tornadoes.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Economic Woes Hitting Red Cross Hard
Martha Perez, her son 20-month old son Emmanuel Matias and friend Mayra Perez, right, walk back to their home after receiving hot meals from the Red Cross in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in Baytown, Texas, in this Sept. 16, 2008 file photo. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
The perfect economic storm Georgia’s going through has battered emergency relief services like the American Red Cross. The Albany branch says they almost went under.
Red Cross officials say donations in southwest Georgia have dropped dramatically the last three months and they were on the verge of suspending operations.
Mari Wright runs the Albany Red Cross office:
”Many of our regular contributors, that would, say, donate a hundred dollars, are now giving us $25 dollars. People that were giving us $25 dollars or less… can’t give us anything. so we are probably at 85 – maybe 90% down, and that’s a considerable amount. It truly is.”Wright says, however, that the United Way, local businesses and individuals have brought in enough donations in recent days to keep their aid services afloat.
Conditions in more urban Red Cross offices are less dire, however.
Officials in Columbus, Augusta, and Valdosta cite a larger donor base, and financial assistance from the national office to help them keep their doors open.
Click on the player below to hear this report.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Second Red Cross Shelter Opened for Victims of Hurricane Gustav
A second Red Cross shelter was opened at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lilburn on Tuesday for victims of Hurricane Gustav, after a shelter in Lawrenceville had reached capacity. A spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency said, about 800 people who evacuated from Gustav are staying in shelters across the state of Georgia.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Augusta prepares for possible Hanna evacuees
As residents along the Atlantic coast brace for what might come with Hanna, Augusta is preparing for evacuees.
The area is prepared to take in up to 1800 evacuees from the Georgia and South Carolina coasts.
The civic center downtown, also known as the James Brown Arena, will open as a shelter at noon on Thursday.
"We'll be bringing in cots and setting up beds in that area," says Jo Maypole, director of the American Red Cross in Augusta. "We're also putting plans together to bring in meals and also counseling, emotional support."
Warren Baptist Church and Wesley United Methodist Church, in Columbia County, will serve as backup shelters.
It appears that, for now, Augusta will be spared severe weather from Hanna, say local officials.
For more information about shelters in the Augusta area, call the American Red Cross at (706) 724-8481.
Residents prepare for hard-to-predict storm
Even if the exact path of Hanna isn't quite known yet, coastal-area residents are preparing for the tropical storm, whose slow-moving and hard-to-predict ways made work difficult for emergency managers Wednesday.
The scenes in Savannah were typical. At the Twelve Oaks Publix, shopping carts were filled with bottled water and batteries. At the Sam's gas station on Montgomery Cross Road, lines were unusually long. Residents coming out of the Victory Drive Home Depot took home lumber and generators.
Eileen Trace was one of those lumber buyers. A co-owner of a downtown barbecue restaurant, she was at her shop, Angel's, Wednesday. "We are getting wood for our windows. We have everything we need if we need to evacuate. We have water and our cat carriers for our pets," Trace said. "I'll evacuate if it's mandatory. Other than that, I'm going to wait and see."
Other residents walking around sunny downtown also said they would take an "if" or "maybe" attitude toward evacuating. Stephen Cyr is a manager at the Savannah theater company, Cardinal Rep, and an ex-Floridian. He said, it would depend on the storm's strength. "Evacuation would be a little overzealous for a Category 1," Cyr said. "I've always stayed for Category 1's and Category 2's."
Forecasts Wednesday still had Hanna tracking east toward South Carolina. While the prediction left some residents breathing easier, officials still warned that a half-degree change in the track could put Savannah in the storm's direct path. The Red Cross was prepared for a strike.
"We have people here whose specialty is mass care, which is sheltering, feeding, bulk distribution," said Tina Hardy, a Red Cross spokesman. "We have people who are prepared to staff up if we need to."
Monday, September 1, 2008
Louisiana residents in GA. weighing when to return
About five hundred of the evacuees from Hurricane Gustav are waiting out the hurricane in Georgia. Some three hundred of them are being hosted at Villa Rica, not far from the Alabama state line.
Red Cross and local volunteers here are providing cots, hot meals and showers for the displaced families.
The exhausted evacuees, many of with them children and elderly family members, are taking shelter in a gym and meeting rooms at a local recreation center.
One of them is Kenner, Louisiana, resident Nolan Eugene, who arrived in a convoy with friends:
"Everybody runnin' from that hurricane, but it done now passed over now, and I'm ready to get back home (laughs). We could leave out tonight, instead of spending another night here – I don't know… six carloads of us got to make a decision."Villa Rica is one of five shelters the Red Cross has opened statewide including Columbus, La Grange, Lawrenceville and Tift County.
Click here for more GPB News coverage or Hurricane Gustav.
Evacuees waiting out Gustav in Ga.
About five hundred of the evacuees from Hurricane Gustav have taken refuge in Georgia. Some three hundred of them are being hosted at Villa Rica, west of Atlanta.
Many of the evacuees arrived at the center, not far from the Alabama state line, in convoys after an all-night drive.
Lisa Matheson of the Red Cross says they’re sheltering them in a gym at a local recreation center:
“This is where we have approximately 250 cots set up to take in the evacuees. We were very fortunate in this shelter, that we had several ancillary rooms where we could take the overflow to accommodate the nearly 300 people who are here.”The evacuees are being given three meals a day, recreation facilities and medical assistance is they need it.
Villa Rica is one of six shelters the Red Cross has opened statewide, including Columbus, Dalton, La Grange, Lawrenceville and Tift County.
Click here for more GPB News coverage of Hurricane Gustav, and other severe weather.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Fort Benning, Columbus ready for Gustav's brunt
Fort Benning is mobilizing to support evacuation and medical efforts for storm-hit areas.
The Department of Defense has placed the infantry training base, along with five others in the southeas Federal Emergency Management Agency logistics staging areas for supplies and equipment.
Nearby, the Columbus branch of the American Red Cross says they have opened an emergency center for evacuees fleeing areas expecting to be hit by Hurricane Gustav sometime Monday.
The center is located at the Calvary Christian School on 7556 Old Moon Road.
Across the Chattahoochee River in Alabama, Russell County is also preparing, and has designated Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Phenix City as an emergency evacuation center.
Click here for more GPB News coverage on Hurricane Gustav.
Hurricane Gustav evacuees begin arriving in Ga. (updated)
NOAA infrared satellite image of Hurricane Gustav over the central Gulf of Mexico.
Georgia officials are readying plans to accept several thousand evacuees, if necessary from states that may be hit by Hurricane Gustav in the next several days.
Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokesman Buzz Weiss says two emergency shelters were opened Sunday afternoon: "We opened, in collaboration with the Red Cross, two shelters: one in Villa Rica, the other in La Grange. As of last night, we had about 67 people in the Villa Rica facility, with a capacity of about 250; we had about 60 people in the La Grange shelter, with a capacity of about 500."
Weiss says say traffic on interstate highways I-20 and I-85 into Georgia from Alabama has risen significantly as of Sunday afternoon.
The Georgia Highway Patrol says over half of the license tags were from Louisiana and Mississippi.
Weiss says GEMA is closely monitoring the situation: “…and as the need develops, we will look at the need to open additional shelters along the I-20 and I-85 corridor”
The hurricane is expected to make landfall Monday morning.
Metro Atlanta hotels and motels say they're renting rooms to self-evacuees from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Click here for updated NWS radar and satellite maps of the New Orleans area.
Click here for more GPB News coverage of recent hurricane activity in Gulf of Mexico.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Red Cross begins Memorial Day blood drive
The Columbus branch of the American Red Cross is holding a blood drive at several locations over the Memorial Day weekend, in honor of US troops:
The American Red Cross Blood Donor Center, 7490 Veterans Parkway
Peachtree Mall
The Kmart department store, 2500 Airport Thruway
The Red Cross is offering blood donors tote-bags, t-shirts and and a chance to win a trip to Disney World.
For more information, or to schedule an appointment, click here.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Governor tours wildfires, blood donations sought
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Okefenokee threatened by fires (UPDATED)
The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has been threatened by the fires in southeast Georgia. This morning, the fires entered the north and west ends of the Refuge, according to the incident commander with the Georgia Forestry Commission.
An Okefenokee-official said the popular Swamp Park that is accessed from the north entrance was closed yesterday, and remains closed today. The park draws thousands of visitors each year. In addition, the west entrance to the Refuge was closed late Tuesday.
Officials do say that the east entrance to the Refuge remains open to visitors with many tourist activities still available
The Okefenokee Refuge encompasses 403-thousand acres just south of Waycross. It covers 650 square miles.
Governor Sonny Perdue has announced that federal funds have been authorized to help fight an uncontrolled fire burning in Ware County.
The funds are made available by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The 20,000-acre Sweat Farm Road fire has destroyed 11 structures and threatens the city of Waycross.
Thirty-one people are being temporarily houses in an American Red Cross shelter at Ware County Middle School in Waycross.
Dense smoke has forced highway closures, particularly those south and west of Waycross.
FEMA will pay 75 percent of the state's eligible firefighting costs.