WAYCROSS, Ga. — It has been nearly a week since Hurricane Helene ripped through our area and after all that time more than 8,000 people in Waycross, Georgia are still without power, although power has slowly returned to some people in that community.
The Friendly Express gas station on Georgia Parkway was one of the few places with power immediately after the storm rolled through. The manager of the store says that power has been restored to the store and that it’s no longer on a generator; the same can not be said for many people in this area.
The inside of the gas station is packed in the middle of the day, a steady stream of customers waiting in line to buy a cold drink or food; pallets of bottled water are available.
Trucks carrying heavy machinery to clean the debris left by the storm pass by the gas station.
Outside, Tonni White comes to the store every single day to fill up five gas cans to fuel her generator. While she said she’s happy some people in Ware County have had their power restored, she feels like she’s been forgotten.
“They’re doing what they can, but it just seems like they’re taking forever," said White, “it’s awful.”
White said she’s afraid that she’ll run out of money with all of the gasoline that she’s had to buy and that it's very discouraging to need to do that and described the way that she rotates her various appliances when she gets home.
“We’re having to hook the refrigerator up, unhook it, flip flop stuff around, we got no air, we’re just heating to death when we unhook the fans, just flip flopping stuff, it’s awful.”
Erion Jones walks nearly a mile to Friendly Express every day too, but not to buy gas.
“I’ve been getting ice, putting it in the cooler, come here to charge my phones and other devices, just being able to survive,” said Jones.
His neighbor Lisa Burrier makes the walk with him every day and brought her power cord so they can recharge at the same time.
“If we weren’t sticking together and getting by we wouldn’t make it," said Burrier, “we’ve lost all the food that we have but we’re doing the best we can.”
This Friendly Express gas station is normally open 24 hours a day, but they’ve had to adjust the hours and close in the middle of the night in order to have enough staff to work with all of the extra customers throughout the day.