Idalia's Fury: S.Ga. digs out of deadly hurricane

VALDOSTA – Under sunny skies Thursday morning, Valdosta and Lowndes County residents still faced the ramifications of Hurricane Idalia.

At least one fatality was reported Wednesday from the hurricane that swept through South Georgia with winds of approximately 70 miles per hour, dumping nearly seven inches of rain, stifled phone service and wifi, left thousands without electricity and toppled hundreds of trees damaging or destroying dozens of homes.

Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said a person was killed and a second person seriously injured Wednesday when people were cutting up a fallen tree blocking Bemiss Road. A second tree fell on them while they were cutting the first tree, the sheriff said.

Numerous people shared social media posts Wednesday of downed trees, ruined homes and destroyed vehicles.

People scrambled to purchase generators or gas for generators as thousands of people remained without power 24 hours and counting after the onslaught of Idalia. 

"With Hurricane Idalia clearing our state, Georgia Power has begun its full-scale damage assessment, along with immediate restoration efforts to restore power to customers," Georgia Power said in a statement Thursday on its outage map, which marked a broad swath of Lowndes without power and numerous other spots throughout the region. "There has been significant damage due to high winds, heavy rain and fallen trees in the hardest hit areas in South and Coastal Georgia. Damage assessment marks the first, critical phase of the restoration process. Georgia Power has crews in the field working safely and as quickly as possible to fully assess damage, which will allow us to provide more accurate estimated restoration times by end of day Thursday for the hardest hit areas in the state."

Colquitt EMC's outage map reported more than 26,000 customers without power Thursday morning in the Valdosta area.

"Colquitt EMC currently has 45,000 meters without power," according to a statement Thursday afternoon. "This is down from a high of 57,000 meters right after the hurricane passed through our service territory. In addition to our in-house crews, we have additional contract and mutual aid crews arriving this morning. So, in addition to the 100 personnel we currently have, we will have 180 more personnel working to resolve the outage.

"Some additional good news: (Wednesday) seven of our 29 substations were without transmission service, but as of this morning that number has been reduced to two substations without service (one in Valdosta and one in Nashville). Georgia Transmission and Georgia Power crews are working to establish service to those two substations this morning. By restoring transmission service to those 5 substations, a significant number of meters have been restored."

Power crews from electric companies across Georgia and the Southeastern United States were working lines throughout Valdosta and Lowndes County.

Dozens of utility trucks were amassed in a staging area in the parking lot of the old Valdosta High School Wednesday evening.

Numerous traffic lights were out Wednesday and Thursday, with their status changing from one day to the next. Motorists may encounter one set of traffic lights at one intersection to find none working at the next intersection. Traffic lights that worked Wednesday evening may have been out Thursday morning.

Motorists had to negotiate many major intersections without traffic lights, taking turns cautiously crossing. Portions of major roadways remained blocked Thursday morning: a portion of Bemiss Road, a portion of North Valdosta Road between North Oak Street Extension and Perimeter Road, etc.

Detours of even one street over, such as the one along Connell Road from Bemiss to North Ashley Street, could be long and frustrating.

Motorists without cell phone service arrived at their workplaces to discover their office was without power.

Motorists searched for gas stations, such as the one in Lake Park using a generator, to pump gas. They searched for fast-food places that had power and were serving. Lines stretched into the street at locations where food and gas were available. 

Meanwhile, city and county crews cleared debris and trees from roadways.

And residents were doing the same to their yards and homes. Numerous people shared photos of trees atop their roofs, or limbs through ceilings inside their houses, or uprooted trees pushing up and knocking houses off of foundations.

The National Weather Service out of Tallahassee, Fla., gauged Idalia's South Georgia impact via Moody Air Force Base readings. Israel Gonzalez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Moody reported 6.84 inches in rainfall, sustained winds of 49 miles per hour and wind gusts up to 64 mph.

Area schools were closed Wednesday and Thursday with several schools scheduled to remain closed Friday.