Legislative Huddle: Lawmakers react to Helene's impact on Georgia

Pamela Kirkland: It's Morning Edition, I'm Pamela Kirkland. It's been nearly four weeks since Hurricane Helene slammed into rural south Georgia as communities continue to cope with cleaning up and rebuilding. They're also examining ways to prepare for the next storm. Helene is the third named storm to hit Georgia in the last 13 months. GPB's host of Lawmakers, Donna Lowry, joins us for a legislative huddle segment on how lawmakers from south Georgia are coping with the devastation and considering future storms. Welcome.

Donna Lowry: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

Pamela Kirkland: So you spoke with lawmakers directly who were hit by the storm. What did they tell you?

Donna Lowry: Well, I talked to two lawmakers who live in South Georgia; rural areas where Helene struck really hard: Tattnall, Toombs, Jeff Davis and surrounding communities. Two people died in the storm. And those communities and the areas are inland, so they're west of the Georgia coast. State Rep. Bill Werkheiser lives in Glenville and state Sen. Blake Tillery lives in Vidalia. They each describe similar ordeals while riding out the storm. Tillery and his wife and children, including an infant, spent the night huddled under a mattress.

Sen. Blake Tillery: It was a very surreal experience. Changes in pressure, it was literally pulling the windows, it'll pull your windows out as it pushed back.

Rep. Bill Werkheiser: I thought my windows were coming in on me, so I left and went into the hallway with a pillow and a blanket. And it lasted about three, three and a half hours like that.

Donna Lowry: Now, that second voice was Rep. Bill Werkheiser. Years ago, he was in a tornado that only lasted about a minute so he says this was much more powerful.

Pamela Kirkland: Wow. And they both stayed put despite the warnings.

Donna Lowry: Yes, because early on, that original storm warning said that Helene tracked more toward the west. Remember, it changed. After the storm passed, Rep. Werkheiser did decide to head to his family in Atlanta.

Rep. Bill Werkheiser: So I drove for an hour and a half in pitch black through five counties. It was just an eerie feeling. I mean, there was not a light to be seen for an hour and a half.

Donna Lowry: Now Werkheiser said his biggest concern was driving over power lines.

Pamela Kirkland: I've had to drive through hurricanes before. It's not a pleasant experience. He took that risk and luckily, it worked out for him. 

Donna Lowry: Yeah, very scary.

Pamela Kirkland: Yeah, very, very much so.

Donna Lowry: And the power was out for a long time. Residents of Jeff Davis County had no power for almost three weeks. Sen. Tillery says the worst part was losing communication with everyone, including his parents, and they were only 2 miles away. Helene took out cell towers and phone lines.

Sen. Blake Tillery: You don't realize how vulnerable you are until you lose something like the ability to communicate. And that — that, I think, in and of itself created its own panic. So we submit any work orders through the internet, or if you need water or ice or a generator — we've seen from this storm is how do you do that when you don't have the ability to respond, to answer an email, to — to turn in a call through a web portal. The 11 counties I represent, we were sporadic in our response. Sometimes the local governments were in a position where they could communicate and respond.

Donna Lowry: Now, Tillery says that during Hurricane Michael in 2018, power companies had to replace about 2,500 poles. Post Helene, he says they're replacing more than 8,000. Now, here's Werkheiser describing one of the other major concerns.

Rep. Bill Werkheiser: The water situation was something that kind of caught me by surprise because you don't think of that happening. ... Two of the three hospitals in my area within 30, 40 minutes away were without water for close to a week.

Donna Lowry: In addition to those issues, the most devastating is the lasting impact on agriculture, the state's No. 1 economic engine.

Pamela Kirkland: Yeah, what do those numbers look like? How bad is the damage to the farm economy?

Donna Lowry:  Yeah, the timber industry took a big hit. Georgia is a global leader in the forest industry and the Georgia Forestry Commission says Hurricane Helene passed over about 8.9 million acres of forest land, causing an estimated financial impact of more than $1.2 billion in timber resources. Then there are the trees that actually grow crops. And here's Werkheiser talking about his friend, who's a farmer.

Rep. Bill Werkheiser: As bad as it is when you lose a cotton or a carrot crop, you can get insurance and you replant the next year. With pine trees and and pecan trees, that's generational — losing trees that were planted 60, 70, 80, somebody said 90 years ago.

Donna Lowry: Again, losing trees is generational. They take years and years, decades to grow.

Pamela Kirkland: Is there money in the damaged trees? 

Donna Lowry: Believe it or not, there is some money. Here's Sen. Tillery talking about that.

Sen. Blake Tillery: Acres and acres of trees that are splintered, broke, all twisted, all laying down. If they're not down now, they're laying at least 30 degrees, which I've been told means that: 30 degrees, you'll expect they'll be dead in 36 months. 45 degrees, you expect they'll be dead in 12 months.

Pamela Kirkland: So I'm guessing that this experience has changed how they view governmental operations. Sen. Tillery chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. Will we see money allocated to storm-related concerns or legislation on some of the issues that we saw come up?

Donna Lowry: Yeah, that's why I was really happy I was able to talk about — talk to him in particular, because he does chair Appropriations. So after having three named storms strike the state in a little over a year, just 13 months, the lawmakers realize that more might be coming. Tillery says we may see some consideration given to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, GEMA, in terms of funding. But Tillery is hesitant about anything else.

Sen. Blake Tillery: So I don't know that it's going to be in our best interest to mandate those things down on those local governments. But we can certainly highlight for them things that worked in certain communities and things that didn't in others. 

Donna Lowry: And there are a couple of other things to note, Pamela. In 2018, when Hurricane Michael hit Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal back then called a special session. Rep. Werkheiser, he believes they closed any legislative loopholes during that session and we'll have to see if there's a move for any new laws when we get there in January.

Pamela Kirkland: We'll have a lot to look for when the legislative session starts in January. We'll have to see what happens there and I know that you will keep us updated.

Donna Lowry: Absolutely.

Pamela Kirkland: Well, Donna Lowry, GPB's Lawmakers, thank you so much for joining me on Morning Edition.

Donna Lowry: I enjoyed it. Thank you.