Valdosta is clearing out the last bit of hurricane debris from three local waterways.
The city received a federal EWP reimbursement of over $1 million to remove debris caused by Hurricane Helene. Cleanup locations include Three Mile Branch, Two Mile Branch, and Hightower Creek, with completion expected by mid-January. Watch the video below to see how this came to fruition a year after the storms. Valdosta Begins Final Push to Clear Hurricane Helene Debris From Local Waterways
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It was so scary like walking through a jungle. Thats how one Valdosta neighbor remembers the months after Hurricane Helene. And now, nearly a year later, the city is finally removing the last of the storm debris clogging local waterways.
Im Malia Thomas, your Neighborhood News Reporter, checking in on whats finally getting fixed.
Meet Emmanuel Fountain. Hes lived in Valdosta his entire life and says Helene wasnt just a storm it was an unraveling. Roads were torn up, entire blocks went dark, and fallen trees were everywhere.
A lot of the roads look regular now, but there are still places with debris. I havent seen people come back to a lot of these neighborhoods, Fountain said.
While recovery has been slow but steady, city officials say progress is finally accelerating.
At City Hall, Valdosta City Engineer Ben ODowd tells me the biggest delay wasnt manpower it was paperwork. The city applied for a federal EWP grant months after Helene, and the reimbursement of just over $1,050,000 has only recently cleared.
With funding in hand, crews are now tackling three major waterways still choked with fallen trees and storm debris: Three Mile Branch, Two Mile Branch, and Hightower Creek.
We made a great effort to reach out to property owners for temporary right-of-entry, ODowd said. Some were successful, some werent. We got down to the wire and even reached out to other Georgia communities for guidance before advertising the project for bid.
The city expects all debris removal to be finished by mid-January 2026.
In Valdosta, Im Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.
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