The shelter activated by Bulloch VOAD and operated by the American Red Cross at Pittman Park United Methodist Church is slated to close at 3 p.m. Friday after housing 27 local evacuees from Tropical Storm Debby’s floodwaters though Wednesday night and receiving at least that many more people who sought shorter-term refuge.
“All totaled we probably served between 60 and 70 people with the shelter,” said the Rev. Jonathan Smith, Pittman Park UMC’s pastor. “About half of that was overnight, to give people a place to rest and recover and begin the next-step process, and a lot folks came in for an hour or two to kind of get stable and figure out what their next step was.”
He said the effort had received “great cooperation among our VOAD partners.” VOAD stands for Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster. Besides Pittman Park, those active in the current effort include Statesboro First United Methodist Church, which provided meals, Southbridge Community Church, First Presbyterian Church, which was available to provide a second shelter, Feed the Boro, and some businesses, such as Chick-fil-A and Starbucks. This is an incomplete list, with 10 to 20 organizations and groups involved.
American Red Cross volunteers including shelter manager Robert Brown from Savannah, but also two women deployed all the way from California, arrived Wednesday to operate the shelter to Red Cross standards. Red Cross nurses came Thursday to check on the health of people staying at the shelter, and a mental health counselor was available.
“Red Cross has helped to make some next steps available for those who are here,” Smith added.
Another church helping support the sheltering effort was First Baptist Church Statesboro. Bill Taylor, a First Baptist deacon who also volunteers with the Statesboro Fire Department’s café team, drove the church bus over to Pittman Park about 3:30 p.m. Thursday to pick up individuals and families checking out of the shelter.
Several families were returning to the Allen Circle neighborhood on Mill Creek, where the rising waters prompted calls for help and an evacuation by local first responders in the predawn hours of Wednesday, Aug. 8.
Thankful for home
“I just thank the Lord, you know, that we can go back home now,” said Allen Circle resident Ronnie Williams, pushing a cart of bedding items that included an American Red Cross blanket . “I don’t know what all is going on over there, but they say we can go back.”
He and a nephew, his brother, sister-in law and parents – a household of six from Allen Circle – had been rescued by Statesboro Fire Department personnel using a boat.
The water rose around the home and vehicles very fast.
“I’m talking about I was outside at a point in time and it wasn’t high like that, and that was about 10-something that night, but about 3 or 4 o’clock that next morning when they were knocking on the door, that joker had rose up about halfway to the house,” Williams said.
He said his family came out “dogs and all.” One dog had to stay because it was acting aggressive, but it was still safe on the porch and was fed by a next-door neighbor, Williams said.
Someone at the shelter called the Fire Department and was told the home was safe to return to, Williams said. To his knowledge at that time, water had not entered the home after rising around it.
Anne Biege-Pearson, an American Red Cross shelter associate in the disaster relief operation, hails from Santa Monica. She is one of the Red Cross volunteers from California who were called up for the Hurricane Debby response, flew to Georgia and were assigned to the Statesboro shelter.
“We will be closing down, probably 3 o’clock tomorrow, and going anywhere else needed,” said Biege-Pearson. “A lot of us are here on a two- to three-week deployment, which means you just have to ask, ‘Oh, where do you need me?’ and plan to get there.”
Only two families would be staying at the shelter – Pittman Park’s large social hall – Thursday night, and for them, the news of the storm’s aftermath is sadder than for those who were able to return home already.
“We’ve only got a few left,” Smith said around 4 p.m. “One person is unhoused, so we’re working on resources for him, to get him to a location. We have two whose homes are total losses, so we’re also figuring out what are next steps for them. So we close the shelter here tomorrow at 3, but we think we can have everybody headed to a place by then.”
Next, Pittman Park United Methodist will shift to hosting teams of people trained to help with longer-term cleanup and recovery.
“We’re backing in the shower trailer now,” Smith said. “We’ll having washing machines, hopefully, within a week, and emergency response teams from north Georgia that will come to muck out houses and clean things up. We’re hoping to have them within a week.”
Brooklet Baptist’s effort
Meanwhile, an alert went out from Brooklet City Hall on Thursday that Brooklet Baptist Church, off U.S. Highway 80 in Brooklet, was offering hot meals, clothes washing and a place to stay to people helping with cleanup and recovery, as well as to anyone displaced by the storm.
As of late Thursday afternoon, the church had not had anyone seek shelter there overnight but had fed about 80 people, with more on the way, said Paula McElveen, wife of Brooklet Baptist lead pastor the Rev. Patrick McElveen.
“We’ve had first responders come in,” she said. “We’ve had EMS workers, the police (and sheriff’s) departments; we’ve had some of the National Guard that has been coming in, and we have a group coming in here in just a little while.”
Volunteers at the church will be serving breakfast, lunch and supper Friday, “just to provide for the people who are going to take care of people,” said Mrs. McElveen.
“But we have the ability to shelter people also, and we also were thinking some of the people coming from out of town to help with the repairs and services of that nature may not have a place to go wash clothes,” she said. “So the ladies of our church said if they’ll bring their clothes, we’ll wash them and have them back in a couple of hours.”
In addition to Brooklet and Statesboro police and Bulloch sheriff’s deputies, the church as fed some Bulloch County Correctional Institute inmates working with the county road crews.
“Which has been a blessing for them, and it’s good for us to say, ‘Hey, we’re here,’” she said.
These efforts may be continued Saturday, depending on the response, she said.
Engineer Battalion
National Guard troops were deployed along Bulloch County roads beginning Thursday after county Public Works Director Dink Butler, Public Safety Director Randy Tillman and Emergency Management Agency Director Corey Kemp discussed details with Guard officers Wednesday.
“Last night we requested the Georgia Army National Guard’s 177th Engineer Battalion, based in Statesboro, to help with clean-up and rebuilding efforts,” wrote Bulloch commissioners Communications Director Dal Cannady. “They are citizen-soldiers who have left their jobs to help us, and other counties, rebuild.”
The National Guardsmen “have been tasked to complete route recons of road issues within Bulloch County,” he stated.
In other words, they are locating and describing road damage, while also helping with some initial repairs and cleanup.
Road updates
Kemp continues to issue updates on storm-aftermath road, bridge and waterway issues on the Bulloch County Public Safety and EMA page on Facebook.
Here’s one from about 4 p.m. Thursday: “(Georgia Department of Transportation) went to Clito Road Bridge near Stilson-Leefield Road. Water currents too strong to conduct inspection. Will try again tomorrow. GDOT has cleared us to open the three bridges on Pulaski Road at the Candler County line.”
Another posting Thursday afternoon noted: “The bridge at Akins Mill Pond is closed until further notice.”
An earlier notice stated that the bridge at Nevils-Daisy Road at Lotts Creek was closed beginning Wednesday night with “water level at bridge deck.” But it also noted that preparations were underway to reopen the Old Highway 46 bridge at Mann Branch (Simmons Pond).
“We are currently evaluating conditions at other bridges as well,” Kemp wrote. “We are working to ensure that no significant structural damage has occurred to the bridges prior to reopening.”