This online news website is owned and operated by Becky Watts. The Editor can be reached at 770-468-7583 or at editor(at)PikeCountyTimes(dot)com. Pike County Times is a website for citizens to keep up with local events and stay informed about Pike County government. It began on November 13, 2006 as a watchdog on county government and has turned into an online newspaper.
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By Becky Watts, Editor
The night of April 27th and early morning hours of April 28, 2011 were tragic hours in counties surrounding Pike County, but the actions that went on in Pike County were heroic. There was more activity in Pike County than citizens realize.
Pike and all surrounding counties went under a tornado watch at 9:29 p.m. according to E911 Dispatch records. One tree had already fallen on a power line two hours prior to this alert. By the end of the night, there were 138 calls for service and Pike E911 assisted Upson County E911.
Pike County E911 monitored and sent out weather updates to all law enforcement, fire and EMS personnel during the night. E911 personnel were constantly monitoring the weather channel and weather radio.
“We had to call a shift in early because the call volume was so high [in E911],” said Major Doug Morris of the Pike County Sheriff’s Office.
Major Morris said at one point during the night, Pike County E911 had to utilize the GIN System to communicate with surrounding counties because Upson County’s radio system went down. “So their calls had to come in here to us and we had to dispatch their deputies,” he said. “We handle a network here for surrounding counties to help them out if their radio system goes down.” Pike County E911 was able to talk to Upson County deputies on the radio when their phone lines went down.
Pike County E911 notified the Road Department of trees down and the power companies of lines that were down as well as dispatching units to calls in Pike County. And this is in addition to keeping in touch with five deputies from Pike County who went to Lamar County when the call for mutual aid went out. “They did an excellent job,” said Major Morris.
Pike County Deputies were instructed to take cover and be available for service during the storms, said Sheriff Jimmy Thomas. Once the storm passed through, the night shift began surveillance in the county including checking on citizens and businesses and checking the roadways. There was no significant damage in Pike County and no loss of life from the storm, but Pike County received multiple calls that the tornado had hit Lamar County and there was significant damage.
Sheriff Thomas met with Sheriff Waller and five units plus the Sheriff were in Lamar County to help. “Our concentration was primarily with Lamar County while we did contact other Sheriffs and offer our assistance.”
“I can’t say enough good things about them,” said Sheriff Thomas of Pike County Deputies. “I think they did a heck of job.”
Darrell Riggins, Operations Manager of Mid Georgia Ambulance, said that the biggest problem they encountered was access because of all the trees and power lines that were down. “Within thirty minutes of the tornado touching down, we had five ambulances in Lamar County,” he said. “Within an hour after it touched down, we had two more… and we turned the eighth one around...”
“We worked really closely with Lamar County Fire and Rescue,” said Manager Riggins. They helped with searching houses, went door to door to check on people hit, and even check on house away from the hard hit areas.
“I can’t thank them enough,” Manager Riggins said of Mid Georgia Ambulance employees. “They jumped in there full speed ahead.” Five employees of Mid Georgia Ambulance that live in Lamar County sustained damage to property and homes from the storm, but everyone made it out ok. Manager Riggins went out to cut trees for the rest of the night.
The two tornado sirens in Zebulon were set off at the direction of EMA Director Jimmy Totten in order to warn residents of the threat of a tornado, but all of the cities do not have these early warning devices. Pike County E911 Dispatch, the Pike County EMA Director, and Pike County Emergency Services (Pike Fire Department) worked together to warn residents in the cities of the impending danger.
Pike County Emergency Services Director Mike Grant said that volunteers from the Pike County Fire Department went to the fire stations prior to the storm in order to warn residents of the impending danger. He said that a call went out over the radio for all who are a part of the County Fire Department to pull their trucks out onto the ramp and turn on the sirens to warn citizens of the impending danger.
“It was very commendable of them… They had to leave their families in the middle of the storm,” said EMA Director Totten.
Deputy Chief Randy Snyder said that E911 was giving weather updates by radio to those who were in the fire trucks at the stations. And as soon as the sirens started going off, volunteer firefighters started showing up at the county fire stations to help out.
“It worked out great,” said EMA Director Totten. He has heard from residents in Lifsey Springs, Concord, and Molena who said that the sirens woke them up so they could turn on their televisions (or look outside to see the problem) and take shelter from the storm. He went on to say that while this worked well this time, “We need an early warning system... We have no way of waking up the entire county.”
After the storm hit, volunteer firefighters helped to do an assessment of the county and found no damage except to the very south end of the county. They began cutting trees with chainsaws to clear the roads and notify E911 of power lines down so the power companies could be notified.
“Meriwether and Upson requested help to clear streets so ambulances could get through,” said Fire Chief Mike Grant. Volunteer firefighters split up into two groups with one group working to clear 362 and another working to clear Piedmont Road.
“There were probably 15 to 18 trees down at one spot right across the county line on Highway 362,” said Fire Chief Grant, “and Piedmont Road was completely blocked.” Some of the firefighters cut trees for seven hours after the tornado hit.
Fire Chief Grant said that fire personnel went down to Lamar County the day after to help do some house searches and help people who needed trees cut in order to get out of their driveways. One of the firefighters took a trailer and his personal vehicle up to Spalding County for several days after the storm to haul metal and bring the money back to the storm victims. Some helped with meal with the Red Cross as well.
Firefighters helped do a damage assessment in Meriwether County as well. “One of the trucks helped with a call while down there,” said Fire Chief Grant. They provided back up on a fire when the Meriwether County fire personnel urged them to come help with a call.
Fire Chief Grant spoke of the near miss in Pike County by saying, “We got extremely lucky.” He said that discussion is ongoing about setting up an Emergency Operations Center in case of another emergency and that discussions are going about an alert system that is cost effective and will benefit the citizens in the event of another emergency like this one. “I want to be prepared if it comes through here again.”
“This showed us a need,” said EMA Director Totten. “We are working with the County Manager and Board of Commissioners to find the best option for an Early Warning System for all our citizens.”
The night of the storm showed us exactly what our emergency services personnel are made of and just how much they care about the citizens in this and the surrounding counties. They went over and above the call of duty.
Take the time to thank someone who works in emergency services when you see them. They don’t hear thank you enough.