GEMA sending Georgians to Florida to assist in disaster recovery efforts

ATLANTA — Hurricane Milton didn’t maul Georgia, however, the work for Georgians and the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA) is far from over.

“We’re very fortunate. Certainly, our hearts go out to our friends in Florida and what they’re dealing with today... seeing a lot of disaster and destruction there,” GEMA Director Chris Stallings told Channel 2′s Mark Winne. “We were gonna see some rain but it was more nuisance rain than heavy rain and then those winds weren’t strong enough that we had any issues with topping of trees.”

Requests from Florida for assistance from the state of Georgia go through GEMA.

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Stallings said Florida has asked for one of the Georgia Army National Guard’s CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters.

The Georgia National Guard said it has already sent a UH-60 Medevac helicopter to Florida.

“We also did get an EMAC (Emergency Management Assistance Compact) request for law enforcement and so the Department of Public Safety is our state liaison there. We’ll begin to resource that out,” Stallings said. “And so a lot of time it’s made up of state troopers, maybe DNR rangers. You’ll also see sheriff’s deputies or local law enforcement, city officers, things of that nature that will help fulfill that resource request.”

Stallings said in many ways the recovery from the hurricane-turned-Tropical Storm Debby in August, is still underway.

The federal disaster declaration needed to free up federal recovery money for Debby came down just the day before Helene hit Georgia.

Because of that, disaster recovery centers in some Georgia counties that would ordinarily be up and running already haven’t started in most eligible counties.

“We’re right at the edge where we transition from response to recovery and recovery is the longest process. It can be years sometimes before we close these out,” Stallings said. “The only thing that happens fast in these disasters is the storm itself.”

Stallings said Georgians should be proud of the GEMA staff and those from other agencies who worked in the state operations center for long days and nights.

“We’ve got some absolute heroes down there,” Stallings said.

Stallings said the disaster recovery center for Debby in Valdosta is up and running. Augusta’s should open Saturday and GEMA is getting others going across Georgia as fast as possible.

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