Cooper and Witten Jones insist they weren’t scared when four large trees smashed into the front of their home as Hurricane Helene raged through their Georgia community. The twin 6-year-old brothers said they weren’t even scared when their mother, Kristin, rushed them, their older sister and the family dog into the bathroom to take shelter in the tub.
“I was scared,” their mother said.
The boys’ 9-year-old sister, Sienna, said she prayed in the bathtub.
“They all laid down when I told them to, I laid on top of them and pulled that mattress on top of us,” Kristin Jones said as she stood outside her badly damaged home in the Augusta suburb of Martinez days later. “Yeah, it was a little tight in the bathtub with all four of them.”
Helene moved into southwest Georgia as a Category 2 hurricane early Friday morning, after two days of heavy rain drenched large parts of the state, leaving the ground unable to absorb additional moisture, making it more susceptible to flooding and trees more vulnerable to falling.
The city of Augusta was particularly hard hit. Toppled trees still litter neighborhoods and rest on fractured houses. Downed power poles stream wires across streets. The smell of sawdust permeates the air, and the din of buzzing chainsaws echoes from crews working to clear debris.
The kids had been sleeping downstairs in the living room while their mother anxiously watched weather reports on television on Friday.
The first four trees fell onto the Jones family’s house just over where the boys were lying in the living room. The trees crashed through the attic and took out the chimney, Jones explained. Then as rain started coming in from the fireplace, Jones moved her family to the relative safety of the bathroom.
All three children and their mother later recalled the noise they heard while they hunkered down in the bathtub with their dog was deafeningly loud as wind blew through their home and water rushed from broken pipes.
Jones’ husband, Galen Jones, estimates a total of six trees hit their home.
Galen Jones was out of town on a golf trip and cell phone service became spotty as he and his friends tried to make their way back home.
“What can you do from three hours away, you know? And then we start wondering, how are we even going to get back? Can we get back, you know? Are they okay?” he recalled.
The area saw some of the heaviest rainfall in the state — totaling 12 to 15 inches, or about four months’ worth of rain in just two days — along with extremely strong winds.
With her husband away, Kristin Jones reached out to her next-door neighbors for help knowing it was no longer safe to stay in the house.
“I texted them, I said, ‘A tree fell on our house. Can you please help us?’” Kristin said. About 10 minutes later, she received a text back saying, “We’re at your front door.”
Neighbors came to the family’s rescue trudging through the storm wearing headlamps, Jones said.
“They put a leash on our dog and in the storm, we ran to their house and sheltered there until it was over,” Jones recounted.
Sunshine after the storm
Days after Helene’s havoc left at least 200 people dead across six states - including nearly three dozen in Georgia - sounds of construction equipment fill the air in Augusta.
Power remains out for about half of Augusta’s residents, many roads are still blocked, gas is in short supply, cell service is spotty and people are picking up the pieces of their splintered homes — but for some, there’s also a sense of progress.
“Every day, just a little bit more gets cleared out,” Galen Jones said. “And, you know, this place gets power, and then this one, power slowly coming back. Those power line crews are doing a good job.”
The efforts extend far beyond local government. President Joe Biden is set to visit the state on Thursday, just one day after Vice President Kamala Harris was in Augusta to get a firsthand look at the damage and meet with emergency officials. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday the state’s gas tax will be suspended until the state of emergency ends on October 9 in response to Helene. The Augusta National Golf Club, home to the famed Masters tournament, pledged $5 million in a joint contribution to the Hurricane Helene Community Crisis Fund.
Nearly half of county remains without power
Evan Grantski said in his Augusta neighborhood, a tree fell on his car, his neighbor’s home was destroyed and nobody has power, but at Grantski Records, the music shop he owns downtown, power has recently been restored, along with internet access.
Meanwhile, Obed Castillo says his eatery, El Paso Tacos & Tequila, has been busy as hungry people come downtown to find places to eat and charge phones.
“The last weekend and these days, many people didn’t have water and power, and this is why a lot of people came to my restaurant,” he said.
On the other side of town, electricity at Monica Foster’s home has been restored, but her neighbors down the street remain in the dark and she says this is especially dangerous for older people in her neighborhood, she told CNN.
“I grew up down here, and I know the majority of everybody here,” Foster said as she and her family cleaned up debris and branches around her house. “There are a lot of elderly people on this street.”
About 47% of the county is still without power, which is not expected to be restored until this weekend, according to Georgia Power.
“They need to come on with the power for the elderly, because people have to charge their oxygen machines, they have medicine that needs to be refrigerated, like insulin,” Foster said.
Foster said she is running an extension cord from her home through the yard to a neighbor’s house so they can have power at night.
“We’re gonna do as much we can,” she said.
For their part, the Jones family are considering their options when it comes to rebuilding their home and their lives.
“We’d like to stay here. We’d love to rebuild. We love this area,” Galen Jones said. “Obviously our neighbors are great, but financially, if it doesn’t make sense, we might have to just, you know, pick up and find someplace else.”
The Jones are grateful everyone in their family is safe and are ready to move on, but despite the boys’ denial of fear, there are signs the experience will stay with all of them long after the houses are rebuilt.
“It rained the next night, and they were terrified,” Kristin Jones said. “The rain and if the wind would blow. That was scary, guys.”