Evacuate even if you’re tired of evacuating year after year.
That was the gist of what Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday as he visited Brunswick, a coastal city that could feel the impact of Hurricane Dorian this week.
Kemp’s stop in Glynn County, one of the six Georgia coastal counties with mandatory evacuation orders east of Interstate 95, was his third press conference of the day.
“This is a big storm, maybe as big as we’ve ever seen,” Kemp told reporters and officials from all levels of government at the Glynn County Public Safety Complex.
“We’re prepared to deal with whatever comes our way,” he added.
Kemp said he has been in contact with not only President Donald Trump, but also the governors of Florida, South Carolina and Alabama.
“If you decide not to evacuate, I want to be clear, you will be on your own if first responders cannot reach you,” Kemp said. “Please don’t take this risk if you’re able to evacuate.”
Kemp, Insurance Commissioner John King and Homer Bryson, director of GEMA (Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency), fielded reporters’ questions, including about the need to evacuate amid uncertainty over Dorian’s path.
The powerful hurricane could reach Georgia’s coast on Wednesday.
Bryson said that those who are disabled or can’t afford to evacuate should contact their local emergency management agency and will likely be relayed to a non-profit like the Red Cross or the Salvation Army.
He said there are 1,500 state employees ready to respond to the aftermath.
King said there were no damage estimates, but he said he felt they were ready.
“This is an incredibly resilient community,” said King. “I know the grit that y’all bring to this.”
» FORECAST: Hurricane's impact on Georgia
» SCENE FROM ST. MARYS: Preparations and evacuations
A crowd of about a hundred people held their lives in trash bags and bed sheets waiting for two Glynn County school buses to evacuate them to Columbus.
They were waiting in a Brunswick shopping plaza with a Winn-Dixie covered in hurricane shutters for the buses because they couldn't evacuate due to cost or disability.
Gloria Van Cleave was there with her husband, their two sons and Midnight, a black cat she rescued a couple weeks ago.
Her 12-year-old son, sports-loving Ethan, brought two footballs, two basketballs and a soccer ball. Ethan was scared.
"We live in a mobile home park. And we might not have anything to go home to," he said.
His 42-year-old mother said they'd never been in a hurricane and didn't feel safe to ride it out in their mobile home by a creek.
"The roof was already going out," she said.
Cheryl Mitchum, 52, didn't think the storm was going to be all that bad.
She and her son were staying at the Salvation Army, but they had to leave due to Gov. Kemp's mandatory evacuation.
Mitchum, who uses a wheelchair due to neuropathy and arthritis in her back, said she voted Kemp but felt he made a mistake by ordering the evacuation.
"I think they jumped the gun on this one," she said.
In all, the Need-A-Ride program run by the Glynn County emergency management agency transported hundreds of people to Columbus on six school buses and was set to do so again Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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