By Bryce Carver
It is no surprise that Hurricane Helene left Douglas–Coffee County in an absolute wreck. A town that I grew up in most of my life was forever changed in one night. Me and my fiance, as well as our three dogs, were crammed under the staircase in the hallway of our old 1930s house when Helene showed her ugly face and slammed four trees down on top of the house. Fortunately, we still have a house standing. Almost an entire year later, I can still hear every crash, scrape, and crunching of the newly installed metal roof while the entire house shook on her 86 year old foundation. I have nightmares of trees falling on the house as if I was back in the nightmare of reality that night. I’ll never forget what I saw when the sun finally showed first light in the most destroyed, surreal, and eerily silent morning of September 27, 2024.
Nearly a year later, the City of Douglas has issued a statement encouraging people to continue repairing their damaged and destroyed properties as if that’s not what we’re already doing. I couldn’t help but to feel an immediate anger as I’ve been working so hard to get my house back to normal just like everyone else. I am tired. I am tired of coming home every day to see my home, my first home, looking ragged in a state of despair. We are all waiting. We’re waiting on money. We’re waiting on contractors. We’re waiting on supplies and materials. We’re waiting on the time to do work ourselves as our lives have continued moving forward when the city finally reinstated the electricity. Most notably, we are waiting on the money.
Despite homeowners paying for homeowners insurance policies and receiving payouts on their claims, many insured homeowners did not receive enough compensation from their insurance companies to pay for the necessary repairs on their homes. On top of that, many people did not qualify for FEMA benefits because of being an insured homeowner or insured renter despite the lack of necessary compensation from their insurance companies to repair their homes. This has caused a large pool of people to halt repairs on their homes. The money is gone. It has been spent. There’s nothing left to pay for contractors, materials, and supplies. The citizens of Douglas–Coffee County, GA are struggling to get their homes back to the way they were before Hurricane Helene showed up.
Thankfully, Coffee County has had many community leaders join efforts to provide hurricane relief. Organizations such as Hope For Coffee, The Hope Initiative, and the Coffee County Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund have been a crucial and essential factor in much of the recovery efforts in Coffee County. The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-Day Saints has also had a notable presence in recovery efforts. Many of these organizations have provided immediate recovery assistance efforts in the wake of the storm; however, their long term efforts have primarily focused on completely totaled homes, uninsured homeowners, renters, and the elderly and disabled. These are their mission fields as they should be; however, a large pool of people within Coffee County are left outside of the financial recovery and support due to their status of being an insured homeowner. Another large pool of people outside of the financial recovery and support are renters who do not see any or little repair to the properties they rent and live in. The people with no money to repair their own homes need assistance, too. The local recovery organizations are doing all that they can within their power to provide financial and reconstruction assistance; however, the State of Georgia and the United States Federal Government needs to do their part in supporting their tax paying citizens in South Georgia.
So, yes. I’m calling out Governor Brian Kemp and President Donald Trump to please do something and support your citizens in the recovery and repair of their homes from the destruction of Hurricane Helene. Press conferences and social media posts do not pay the contractors to repair our homes and they do not pay for the materials and supplies we need to repair our homes ourselves. We need financial assistance and funding from the State of Georgia and the United States Federal Government. We are not asking for a handout. We are asking for help. We, tax paying citizens of the United States of America, should not have to pay our mortgages, pay our homeowners insurance, and do our part in the documentation of damages to our properties to not have our homes repaired back to how they were before Hurricane Helene. We deserve to have our homes, our hard-earned homes, repaired back to their originality.