After Hurricane Idalia made landfall along the coast of the Florida near Keaton Beach last month with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph, it moved across northern Florida into Southern Georgia, near Valdosta. While Idalia may have declined in strength as it traveled, it still caused extensive damage in the Peach State, including downing trees and communication towers and causing roof breaches and interior flooding on numerous homes.
Among the communities most damaged was Lowndes County, with heavy damage observed in the city of Valdosta. On Tuesday, September 5, Lowndes County’s Emergency Management had identified close to 1,000 homes that had sustained significant damage during Hurricane Idalia and were still in need of assistance.
In response, on September 6, Team Rubicon expanded its Hurricane Idalia response beyond Florida with the launch of a response operation in the Georgia‘s Lowndes and Brooks counties. There, Team Rubicon volunteers—or Greyshirt—will perform vegetative and non-vegetative debris removal, tarp roofs, muck out flooded homes, and conduct chainsaw operations.
More than 40 Greyshirts will be deployed to Georgia over the course of the operation, which is expected to run through at least September 24.
