Columbia County staff outline post‑Helene response; tax assessor reports more than 50,000 windshield assessments
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Summary
County staff described emergency operations after Hurricane Helene, saying fleet, GIS, broadband, procurement and other departments kept services running; the tax assessor reported preliminary windshield assessments of more than 50,000 homes with damage tallies.
Columbia County staff described the county’s emergency response and early damage assessment after Hurricane Helene during a post‑storm briefing, saying multiple departments worked around the clock to restore services and support residents.
In the briefing, a County staff member said fleet services kept generators running at the emergency operations center, fire stations and the 911 dispatch center, and provided fuel for response vehicles. The county’s geographic information systems (GIS) team created a real‑time dashboard mapping downed trees, power lines and blocked roadways and produced tools for points of distribution, debris management sites, a road status dashboard, shelter registration and windshield damage assessment graphics.
County staff described broadband and information technology efforts that maintained the county network while commercial communication towers were down, allowing departments to continue coordinating. Procurement secured a contract for debris removal and monitoring, and traffic operations worked to restore malfunctioning signals, the staff member said.
The tax assessor’s office conducted preliminary windshield assessments of more than 50,000 homes in five days, the staff member said, reporting "over 200 homes destroyed, over 2,500 homes with major damage, and over 2,300 homes with minor damage." The statement noted thousands more homes and vehicles were affected in some capacity, but did not specify an exact total beyond those categories.
Parks and recreation, performing arts center staff, code enforcement, building standards and the water utility helped set up points of distribution and run shelters; county staff said some parks remain closed while cleanup continues. Facility maintenance and custodial teams prepared county buildings for reoccupation, and human resources coordinated staff and volunteers assisting recovery operations. "It takes every single person to make a difference," the County staff member said.
The briefing presented these operational facts and initial damage counts; no formal votes or policy actions were announced during the remarks. County staff did not specify timelines for reopening all parks, the duration of debris contracts, or the next formal reporting date for damage estimates.
