Riding Out Hurricane Helene and the Road Back to Normalcy

The Calm Before Helene

The evening before Hurricane Helene landed, Augusta, Georgia, I sat underneath a mean-looking sky.

Rain was forecast earlier in the day, but it held off. It was weird how the storm lingered before coming ashore for so long, yet signs of it were everywhere. The weather radar on my cell phone showed storm bands stretching miles from the hurricane — still over the Gulf of Mexico — yet the rain stretched past Atlanta into the Carolinas and into Tennessee.

The impact was being felt far inland, but we had yet to have a taste. We had already made a call that there may not be any work tomorrow, but little did we know about what we would face.

When the rain finally arrived mid-morning, it wasn’t a drizzle. Heavy and intense, Helene was still hundreds of miles offshore, yet you could feel its presence, and it was strong. I had never seen rain bands stretch so far, except for one back in the ‘90s.

Constant tornado warnings left us with little rest in the night. The winds were very strong by 4 a.m. and they were unforgiving. Augusta is not used to hurricane strength winds. I felt like we were being taken over. Giant trees swayed in our yard, and the sound of debris hitting the house became frightening, and real.

Facing the Storm Head-On

There was one point where I distinctly heard the unmistakable sound of a tornado. It was short, but I knew what I was hearing. It was a reminder of a hurricane’s unpredictable power. Later, we would learn about a number of tornadoes dropped across the state of Georgia through the night.

When the storm passed over my home, I was looking at the radar on my phone and learned Helene had reached category one status. Seconds later, there was another message that said hurricane Helene had been downgraded to a tropical storm. All within seconds, but for an hour or so, the winds were so high the official status didn’t make much difference.

We took shelter in our small bunker in our garage for two hours. We sat listening to branches and debris hit our garage door. We could hear trees popping and branches hitting our home. It was unbelievable and something you wouldn’t expect so far from the coast.

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The Messy Aftermath

When the sun came up, the extent of the damage was apparent. We expected a powerline down here or there because our power was out, but we didn’t expect anything near the devastation we saw. Trees, mainly pines, blocked the roads. It was a reminder of the hurricane damage I witnessed from Hurricane Andrew as a teenager in South Florida, but not quite as bad. Just enough to bring back that memory. Neighbors banded together. Chainsaws came out, and we cut through anywhere we could to get out of the neighborhood and onto the 3-mile stretch to the interstate.

When the road was opened, it looked like a wagon trail with wheel tracks swerving all the way to the interstate. Power poles along the entire stretch were broken. I heard later that a third of the state was without power. Once we were able to reach the interstate, multiple trips toward Myrtle Beach were ahead to get fuel and purchase generators where the storm had not hit. It became a ritual for the first week.

We needed generators because the one at our shop was down, and several people who worked for us were without power. People were looking for ways to come back to work for some sense of normalcy.

The dead generator at my shop was my own fault. Lack of maintenance. These things need to be started every few months and properly maintained, much like an air conditioning system. As contractors, we share the importance of maintenance all the time and tell customers it must be done. I had failed on that front. Lesson learned, and now we have annual maintenance scheduled for our generator.

Once we finally had generators at the shop, lo and behold, the power came on. It wasn’t because of the generators. Utilities had banded together to get the power on all across the state of Georgia. It was a Friday, so our journey really began on Monday.

The Road to Normalcy

After about a week after the storm hit, I ordered everyone to meet at the shop so we could talk. Our focus was on empathy and understanding. Some clients had lost everything, while others just wanted air conditioning.

We had to emphasize to our team the things that we could and couldn’t work on and relay information to customers who faced their own problems. For instance, a homeowner might be upset because you cannot repair a system that’s operating on a generator for obvious reasons.

We also had to get our call center back up and running, and the only way to do that was to rent a room at a local hotel with power and Internet.

After the staff meeting, we came across a creative solution. Our customer relationship manager platform (Service Titan) is capable of having lines forwarded to cell phones. One of our customer care reps tethered their computer to their cell phone hotspot. Since my service was not working, I asked her who her provider was. I immediately went to her provider and purchased a Wi-Fi hotspot for the office that was then connected to our network, restoring both phones and the Internet, but this was only a quick fix to allow us to avoid relocating to a hotel conference room as previously planned.

By the second week, we had installed Starlink satellite to ensure uninterrupted services when the daily post-5 p.m. traffic spike ate up all the bandwidth. We may well still operate that way in the first months of 2025.

Long-Term Lessons Learned

The hurricane’s trail of destruction was definitely a test, not only for me and my neighbors but for the entire city, the Bailey’s Comfort Services team, and for me as a business owner. It definitely puts into perspective the importance of preparation from all angles, not just on heating and air conditioning but also on having backup solutions.

It also highlighted the strength of our community and the strength of our neighbors and colleagues who came together to clear the road, to share their homes and food and to support one another. For me and my team, the storm served as a reminder of why we do what we do, helping others no matter the circumstance. Helene may have passed, but Its memory will be with us and keep us on our toes for years to come.