Albany Stronger forum offers storm recovery update

Jan. 31--ALBANY -- One year after the deadly January storms that devastated Albany and Southwest Georgia in 2017, Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard hosted a public forum to discuss recovery progress.

"Albany Stronger" was the theme of the event, which was put on by the Mayor's Coalition for Economic Development.

An estimated 75 people attended the forum, which featured brief presentations by local television meteorologist Yolanda Amadeo, United Way of Southwest Georgia Executive Director LaKisha Bryant Bruce, Fleming & Riles Insurance Co. President Clint Ivy and Dougherty County Assistant Administrator Michael McCoy.

Hubbard began the forum by recalling some of the sights and sounds brought on by the storms.

"Looking back on January 2017, I remember the devastation -- trees on cars, lights out, utility lines down ... everywhere," the mayor said. "Steel twisted at the Marine base; children at shelters ... all those things are still stuck in my mind, but I am grateful we are in recovery."

Hubbard said the purpose of Wednesday's forum on storm recovery was to look at lessons learned and to determine if the community is better prepared if another traumatic event occurs.

"One thing is for certain, there will be more storms and they are likely to be severe," Amadeo said. "Being weather-ready depends on all of us. We need to prepare for the unexpected."

In order for a community to be weather-ready, families and businesses need to have a plan in place, Amadeo said.

Research shows 40 percent of those impacted by the storms did not have an emergency plan, 80 percent did not practice their emergency plans, 60 percent did not know evacuation routes and 20 percent had a person with a disability in their homes.

Amadeo said one of the biggest hazards to keeping people safe is when warnings are given but not heeded.

"When a warning comes out, it means to take protective action now," she said.

Using a storm alert weather application on a cellphone and/or purchasing weather radios can be helpful in tracking inclement weather and local storms, Amadeo said, noting such radios are sold locally at Harvey's, Publix and Walgreens.

Establishing an emergency operations center within 24 hours of the storm warning, using multiple ways to reach the public, monitoring and reporting local weather and holding "mock" emergency weather drills throughout the community are some of the ways Albany can best prepare for future bad weather events, she suggested.

Bruce spoke on behalf of United Way and other nonprofit entities that came together to assist storm victims. She said a fund to take donations was set up within 24 hours after the storms hit, and numerous businesses, volunteer groups, agencies and individual donors responded. Bruce said the 311 information service played a key role in helping storm victims connect with agencies and services that provided information immediately following the storms and throughout the recovery process.

"After Operation Blessing and Samaritan's Purse left the area, an ongoing volunteer-based group called Albany Relief and Recovery became a key collaborative to assist with disaster relief," Bruce said. She noted that 662 families were assisted through Albany Relief and Recovery.

Ivy talked about insurance and how complicated it can be to understand and work through policies and coverage whenever a home or business is impacted by a weather-related event.

"Many people have no flood insurance," he said. "Many did have property damage but not as much coverage as they thought they had."

Ivy explained the difference between replacement insurance, actual value and market value. He also said that many of the property values in Albany and in Dougherty County are based on old estimates that do not coincide with a true cost of repairs and replacement in today's economy.

"They reflect outdated construction costs," he said. "The cost of steel has gone through the roof in the last 10 years. Many of the insured had what they paid for at the time they purchased their homes, but that is not enough now."

Another problem insured storm victims encountered was having the necessary value for their homes but not having insurance coverage for fences, detached buildings or damage to their outside property, Ivy said.

Some policies also added 20 percent deductibles for wind or hail damage, meaning a policy with a $1,000 deductible could jump to a $3,000 deductible for wind or storm damage. Ivy said it is important to check policies each year at renewal and to always read fine print.

McCoy told those gathered, "We've come a long way."

The interim county administrator talked about the resiliency of the community and presented power point slides showing how funds were spent during the immediate storm aftermath and over the past year of recovery. McCoy also discussed details of a planned storm memorial to be erected in the Radium Springs area, where most of the damage from the second storm occurred.

Hubbard said after the forum she wanted to know more details about the weather- and storm-readiness programs and what steps needed to be taken to ensure Albany and Dougherty County would be recognized as storm-ready communities.

Mark Wool, warning coordinating meteorologist for the National Weather Center in Tallahassee, Fla., said there are two different storm- and weather-ready programs.

"In order to obtain storm-ready status, like that given to the Albany Marine Base and to Albany State, the main requirement is to have a redundant means of receiving weather warnings and of communicating those warnings effectively to the populations being served by the storm-ready entity," Wool said. "The entities must also actively engage in communicating awareness and storm preparation information.

"Since next week is Georgia's Severe Weather Preparedness Week, those entities will participate by hosting guest speakers, distributing information or conducting other storm-readiness activities. The storm-ready program also requires written disaster plans and the ability to set up and activate an emergency center in the case of a weather-related emergency."

The second program, called the Weather Ready Ambassador Program, has less rigorous requirements and is run through county emergency service departments as the main entity to receive and disseminate weather-related information, Wool said.

"Both are great ideas," he noted. "Dougherty County was part of the weather-ready program in the past but that lapsed with a change in leadership."

Wool said he received a call on behalf of the mayor on Thursday and is aware of her intent to restart that program.

To find out more information about the two programs, visit www.weather.gov/stormready or www.weather.gov/wrn.

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