Cherokee County To The Rescue

By Heather Thompson

COUNTY RESIDENTS STEP UP AFTER HELENE

In any town, city, or county in America, we like to believe that our neighbors would be there in a time of need. Cherokee County residents have proven that when disaster strikes, no matter how far, they will answer the call and use their talents to help people and save lives.

FOR THESE BUSINESSES, IT’S PERSONAL

After hurricane Helene made landfall, Josh Bagby , owner of Providence Insurance located in Canton, was heading to Charlotte, South Carolina, for a meeting and refused to go without taking supplies. After asking around, his contacts sent him to Inman, South Carolina, a small town that had been without power for five days. Using his own money for water and other supplies, Josh rolled up to a fire station just in time to replenish their supplies, as Inman was on its last two cases of bottled water. “I just felt like we should be doing something,” Josh emphasizes.

Josh’s office has been a hub for supplies as other people and organizations in Cherokee County needed distribution sites for residents to drop off much-needed food, water, and other goods to help the people of Appalachia and South Georgia.

Cherokee County native Ben Cagle, of Cagle Family Farm in Canton, made sure that the residents of Georgia hit by Helene had supplies too. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Ben filled a semi-truck full of supplies for Appling County, Georgia, for the local Farm Bureau office to distribute among the people in need. Appling County is without power and trees have fallen on roads, homes, and other areas. Many of the residents have wells, and without power cannot pump water.

Ben served on Georgia Young Farmers, and had a contact there who expressed that no one had brought any supplies to Appling. “It’s a very rural part of Georgia,” Ben says. “I looked at the Satilla REMC’s outage map, and they were still at 49,000 without power just in that area, and they are telling folks twenty to thirty days.”

The Appling County supply includes water, charcoal, lighter fluid, personal hygiene products, paper products such as paper plates, cups, and napkins, and other disposables, as there is no water which with to clean to dishes.

“It’s a different kind of devastation than North Carolina,” Ben says. “It’s all in the same storm and a lot of attention has been given to North Carolina, and rightfully so, but we are also going to try to help our Georgia friends.”

POST-HURRICANE RECOVERY: THE VITAL ROLE OF WATER

Reformation Brewery CEO Spencer Nix initiated water-canning at the brewery nonstop for days in order to supply clean water for people in Flat Creek, North Carolina. Nearby Asheville, North Carolina, is the craft beer hub of the southeast and has been for many years. Having been pioneers in the industry and paving the way for many other breweries, Asheville is a beacon in the community, but that community needs help and Spencer wanted to do something.

“We are a value-based brewery and we try to be good stewards of the grace and the goodness that we have been blessed with here in North Georgia,” Spencer explains. Being good stewards means helping not only locally, but all communities in need within the reach of Reformation Brewery.

Spencer’s close friends Kevin Griggs and Kim Griggs have a personal friend in Flat Rock, North Carolina, who needed help and they asked Spencer to provide something to drink, and it developed from there.

Within twelve hours, Reformation Brewery canned a pallet of water and Kevin and Kim took it to Flat Rock, but their efforts didn’t stop there. After hearing just how devastated the community is, and how much help they need, Spencer reached out to Cherokee County for help and let his customers know that he would “crank up the canning line” and can as much water as he could.

No stranger to helping in natural disasters, Spencer previously ran a nonprofit organization called Grace the Nations, and he handled disaster relief logistics locally and internationally, which is why, in this disaster, he set Reformation Brewery up as a hub for donation collection and distribution.

“The first week or two after a disaster it’s communities helping communities and neighbors helping neighbors before larger organizations get set up to help, and that takes valuable time with people’s lives,” Spencer says.

Spencer praised the Cherokee County community for stepping up to help locally and regionally as the brewery and others work to deliver supplies to those in need.

“Cherokee residents have been giving money for us to run this water-canning line at full speed without expectation of return and no tax benefit,” Spencer exhales before explaining that the Cherokee community is giving out of their hearts, and he is floored at the generosity. “It’s humbling and I want to say thank you to everyone. We can’t do any of this without the community because they did this, not us.”

BOOTS ON THE GROUND

Kevin and Kim Griggs started the water train from Reformation Brewery to Flat Rock, North Carolina, because they wanted to help a friend in need, Brandi Elledge.

“I saw a post that her son was missing. He had been at a friend’s house when the storm rolled in,” Kim says. After the basement flooded, Brandi’s son and friends tried to get out but were surrounded by trees and power lines with no way of escape. After six hours trying to reach him by car, they made the trek on foot, and after twenty-four hours, Brandi finally got her son back.

“I got a wild hair of ‘Can we just bring you water?’ because Brandi was telling me how horrible it was,” Kim recalls. She explains that Kevin works for Southeast Restoration in Canton, and the company loaned him a truck to take the water up to Brandi in Flat Rock.

Kim Griggs and Brandi Elledge unload pallets of canned water donated by Reformation Brewery for hurricane aid in North Carolina.

Brandi, Kim explains, loads up a van every day and goes around her area where no rescue or relief has arrived. “They have a warehouse and we are trying to get truck drivers to take supplies up to Brandi in Flat Rock, so if you are available you can email me,” Kim adds.

To contact Kim Griggs, email [email protected].

OPERATION AIRDROP

Casey Millsaps , an ordinary Ball Ground resident put in an extraordinary circumstance, was in North Carolina on Thursday, September 26, when Helene hit the state. He saw the waters rise then spent Friday and Saturday clearing trees, and knew he wanted to do more.

He found himself at the forefront of Cherokee County and the surrounding area’s Operation Airdrop efforts, and began organizing flights for himself and ten other pilots in conjunction with Samaritan’s Purse and other groups that needed aid. By the end of last week, Casey and his team of pilots dropped more than fifty loads throughout North Carolina and Tennessee.

“It has been really cool to see people come together and rally behind the effort,” Casey recounts.

As donations began to pour in, Casey found himself needing transportation for all the items: enter Chad Jenkins, of Intelligent Contracting Group out of Ball Ground, who paid to provide a box truck and paid one of his employees to help load and unload it. Chad also drove that same box truck to an airport in Andrews, North Carolina, so the pilots could conserve fuel on reloads. “He waited there all day so that we could hop back and save on fuel,” Casey, grateful for Chad’s efforts, shares.

The pilots—including Wayne Smith, Frank Mann, Amir Bayani, Nick Reyzin, Travis McKie-Voerste, Bryan Angell, Ervin Bier, Breck Tillery, and Kenneth Howes—are everyday Georgians who saw a need and filled it. Five of the pilots were able to land their planes in remote locations where other planes and helicopters could not go, dropping much-needed supplies to communities that are trapped.

Casey describes some of the drops akin to bush plane flights in the Alaskan wilderness. One of his drops was a request for chainsaws, fuel, and other equipment. Thanks to the donations of Cherokee County residents, Casey bought the requested chainsaws, blades, pre-mixed gas, chaps, gloves, and other needed accessories to help these communities literally cut their way free.

“That was [the load] I flew up there [Wednesday] and from a safety perspective, I said, ‘Hey, if y’all see a mushroom cloud up in the northeast sky, it was me,’” Casey chuckles as he talks about the volatility of a load like that, but he also knows there were people who desperately needed it.

NONPROFITS STEPPING UP TO HELP

The Cherokee County 911 Foundation, led by Board President Lori Flink, MAS , partnered with Georgia Association of Public Safety Communications Officials [APCO] to provide relief and restoration of 911 centers in Georgia that have been affected or taken completely offline due to Hurricane Helene.

“Our 911 center in Cherokee is collecting food, water, and other supplies from employees and sending it down to South Georgia,” Lori explains.

There are many 911 centers, both in Georgia and North Carolina, that are not fully operational as of this writing, which is why the foundation has partnered with Georgia APCO to get those centers the funding they need to start taking calls again.

Alice Fennell, MPSA , support services deputy director at Cherokee County 911, explains that if a 911 center is taken entirely offline, there is usually a backup plan depending on the size of the county. “In most cases, there are memorandums of understanding that you can transfer your calls to another 911 center,” Alice says.

The disaster preparedness response plans laid in place by each county are activated if any 911 centers are not functioning. Cherokee County has a fully operational backup center should the main building be taken offline; however, smaller counties in rural areas have to transfer their calls to the designated neighboring county in the disaster plan, or take 911 calls on their cell phones. The good news for residents of any county affected by Helene is that they will reach someone if they call.

Sirens Project, in conjunction with His Hands Church in Woodstock, is a rapid-response disaster relief organization that was out on the Friday after Hurricane Helene to clear trees from roads, homes, and other areas. CEO and certified arborist Warren Causey says his organization has reached the Acworth, Milton, Adel, Nashville, Valdosta, and Lake Park, Georgia, communities and Steinhatchee, Florida, since then.

“Our main focus after disasters is route clearance of hazardous tree removals,” Warren says. “Our specialty is removing trees that could cause grave loss of life or property as well as disrupt traffic flow.” Warren’s mission doesn’t stop there, though. When Sirens Project first rolls into a community they bring generators and fuel for those without power. As Warren and his team continue to cross the region and help out where needed, he knows it will take years to rebuild. “The devastation is extremely immense and overwhelming,” Warren remarks. “This hurricane has the potential to be this generation’s Katrina.”

His organization is connected with hundreds of nonprofits and churches all over the country, and those organizations are deploying all their resources in response to this storm. “As the media cycle gears up to change, these families will be lost in the noise,” Warren says. “There are some communities that do feel like they are being left out from the media discussion, and it is our goal to help make them feel heard.”

At Enjoy Cherokee, we want all the affected communities of Hurricane Helene, especially our neighbors in South Georgia, to know that we see you and that Cherokee County has your back.

https://enjoycherokee.com/cherokee-to-the-rescue/