TIFTON — Cleanup in Tift County continues in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Across the county, only a small percentage of residents are still without power, as various power companies and the local governments have been hard at work restoring and fixing outages caused by the storm.

The county has reported that 1,956 out of 20,662 residents are experiencing outages, with 347 Georgia Power customers out of 13,483 and 1,631 Colquitt EMC customers out of 6,537 lacking power. Irwin EMC and Mitchell EMC currently report no outages.

However, much of this restoration has been centered around the City of Tifton, and many of the county’s more rural areas still await the return of their electricity.

Repairs to damage and and cleanup of debris caused by Hurricane Helene are underway around the county, with several crews having been hard at work since the morning after the storm to clear 8th, 12th, and 20th streets in Tifton. 

8th Street was opened Monday, following the last bit of cleanup at a blocked intersection after a pole holding up streetlights had been snapped in two.

Fulwood Park, which saw multiple trees toppled in the wake of the storm, is expected to have a long cleanup effort ahead.

Several roads around the county, however, are still closed off in certain sections, with many of them requiring the aid of the local power company to be put back into order.

As of this afternoon, county officials have reported 16 road closures, five of which are in Tifton, one each in Omega and Ty Ty, and the remainder from around the county. Nearly all of them are the result of fallen trees or power lines across the road.

A majority of the damage in the county has resulted from trees falling across power lines, in rare cases ripping the power pole out and requiring a full replacement, but several houses have also been hit by the fallen trees. Thankfully, no deaths have been reported locally.

Following the restoration of power, telephone and internet crews have been at work repairing their respective services around Tifton and the greater county.

Schools in the county system have been out since last Thursday, but students are expected to return today. Faculty and staff returned to their schools Wednesday.

Students of Tiftarea Academy and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College have already returned to class; the northern end of the county was less affected by the hurricane, and while ABAC’s phone lines were damaged in the storm, they reported “minimal damage” to their campus and resumed normal operations Wednesday.

County officials have reported that assessment teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have begun performing drive-through window assessments of the county, a necessary step for Tift to receive disaster declaration relief. They plan to provide more information on these assessments if and when it is made available.