Tropical Storm Helene’s arrival in our area Friday morning was bound to have a devastating impact, and there’s no better way to illustrate how damaging the storm was than to see what those most affected by it have had to deal with.
When I issued a call-out to readers for photos of storm damage and flooding near them, I was honored that so many bothered to take the time to share what they saw.
One of them is Renae Popkin, a resident of Columns Drive, who sent the photos and video included in this post of the flooding in her yard, the road in front of her home and in the neighborhood.
This was where storm flooding from Helene was worst in East Cobb, and Columns Drive was closed until late Friday afternoon.
In addition to surging storm waters, downed trees and debris in the road made it impassable.
Popkin told us on Friday that there were staff from the Cobb Sheriff’s Office trying to cut the trees and remove pieces from Columns Drive.
When we checked back with her on Saturday, she sent a photo of a portion of the road that’s still blocked off.
“Luckily most of the water has receded!” she said.
(Click the middle button to view the slideshow.)
While she and her neighbors still have cleaning up to do as they dry off from a very soggy few days, we in East Cobb are breathing a sigh of relief that the damage wasn’t worse.
Only a few thousand people in Cobb County lost power, and the wind gusts that promised to be at tropical-storm levels didn’t materialize as they could have.
We really dodged a catastrophe. When I woke up after daybreak Friday morning, I said a prayer and cried a little.
I won’t lie, I was deeply afraid of what might have happened here. I had my evacuation bag packed and ready to go. My cat slept through the whole thing, right near a window, so perhaps I should have taken that as a clue.
When I see photos and videos of what Helene wrought elsewhere in Georgia, and in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee—where whole towns disappeared and doctors, nurses and patients had to be rescued from the top of hospital that had been flooded—tears come to my eyes.
Mostly, I feel a great sense of gratitude that our lives haven’t been ripped apart by the storm like so many others have.
Around 15 Georgians have died, including a first responder. Parts of the city of Valdosta have been leveled. Massive flooding in the metro Atlanta area persists. A million people were without power.
We have so much to be thankful for in East Cobb, and this local news publisher is especially grateful to readers for giving us an up-close glimpse of what even a fraction of a powerful storm can do.
One of the biggest changes in the news business in the digital age is the ease with which everyday people can be citizen-reporters, if you will, relaying their observations, photos and videos with the public.
The last thing I did as the editor of East Cobb Patch was cover the major ice storm of January 2014. Like everyone else, I was hunkered down and frozen in, but readers sent in their information and photos of what their neighborhood looked like, how long it took them to get home, etc.
That’s the Power of Local on display, as it was here again on Friday, in a time of a potential crisis that could have crippled this community.
I deeply appreciate Renae and all the others who shared with us a sense of what it was like out there.
I like to say that readers have helped make East Cobb News better—not just with their contributions but also with their feedback—good, bad or otherwise—to guide me as we continue here.
Thanks to all of you for your readership, and for investing your time with East Cobb News. Please get in touch at wendy@eastcobbnews.com with suggestions, comments, etc. I’d love to hear from you!
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