The Red Cross of Georgia began mobilizing volunteers on Saturday to assist with recovery and cleanup efforts in the wake of Tropical Storm Florence.
As the storm continued to pelt North and South Carolina with driving rain, in some towns up to 30 inches, nearly 70 of the relief agency’s volunteers from around the country converged on Macon. On Saturday afternoon, Red Cross officials said they were waiting for authorities in both of the affected states to give them approval to come in and begin what’s expected to be a weeks-long, if not months-long, effort.
“Volunteers are ready to go, we’re just waiting on the storm,” said Ashley Henyan, spokesperson for the Red Cross of Georgia.
Later in the day, the Red Cross of Georgia announced the deployment would be at 9 a.m. Sunday.
Meanwhile, evacuees also were waiting it out in Georgia. As predicted by the National Hurricane Center, Florence began moving at a snail's pace once it made landfall on Friday, moving at 3 mph and dumping a torrent of rain across the Carolinas. Several deaths had been attributed to the storm as of Saturday afternoon.
Henyan said 30 Red Cross trucks began assembling in Middle Georgia over the weekend at a staging center set up at the Macon Farmers’ Market. Each truck had at least two volunteers and the vehicles were loaded with supplies to assist with the cleanup: bleach, brooms, sponges, buckets, water and some nonperishable food. Volunteers came from as far away as Oklahoma and Ohio, Henyan said.
“People who decided to shelter in place during the storm, for them those supplies run out and if they want to venture out to find supplies and food, there’s sometimes no food to get because places are closed because they have no power,” Henyan said.
Just as the Red Cross is waiting for the all-clear to move into the affected areas, some residents of those areas who evacuated to Georgia are in a holding pattern as well. Across several state parks in North Georgia, a similar story emerged on Saturday: It's not the wind that is keeping people from going home, but the rain.
Amy Ferguson, who works at Don Carter State Park in Gainesville, said at least a few evacuees are remaining in the park for the next couple of days because there house along the North Carolina coast near Wilmington was flooded.
“Someone up there took a picture of their house up there and sent it to them and it was completely flooded with water that was waist-high,” said Amy Ferguson, who works at the park.
Another family, who’d brought along an older relative, was concerned because the relative’s nursing home back in North Carolina had flooded, Ferguson said.
At Vogel State Park in Blairsville, between 100 to 200 evacuees have taken shelter in the park since last week, said Brian Kelley, who works at the park. Some have come in from South Carolina and others have come from North Carolina. But after a few days, some evacuees couldn’t wait any longer. They wanted to return to begin assessing the damage, Kelley said.
“One guy from Myrtle Beach, he just left to go back,” Kelley said. “Maybe he’s got high hopes.”
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