Posted on Thu, May. 15, 2008

Georgia Insurance and Fire Safety commissioner John Oxendine landed in Macon by helicopter this morning to begin touring tornado-ravaged neighborhoods.

Oxendine, who was out of the country when storms hit, said he was able to see some of the damage from the air before he landed just before 10 a.m.

"The damage here is remarkable," he said after exiting the chopper. "The residential areas around the lake, very few homes were spared. There is extreme damage there."

It will probably be the end of the week before official state and federal damage estimates are ready, but by any measure damage from the Mother's Day tornadoes was massive.

Insured losses, initially pegged at $50 million and rising by the state insurance commissioner, have risen to about $100 million, the commissioner's office said Wednesday. Uninsured losses will be cataloged by state and federal officials, who have traveled around Bibb County and are analyzing their numbers, Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokesman Buzz Weiss said.

They hope to have a report in a couple of days. Surveys in other counties, including Laurens County, are still under way, Weiss said.

In the meantime, local officials said their initial damage estimate, done by the Bibb County Tax Assessor's Office, still seems valid. That put the number of damaged buildings in the county between 1,500 and 2,000, and the number of homes between 1,200 and 1,500.

The price tag was pegged between $75 million and $100 million, and the mayor's office said Wednesday that final damage numbers will probably be more than $75 million.

Restoring power has been a massive operation. Georgia Power has had about 2,500 people working on power lines, the company said. There are three staging areas in Macon and the company uses buses to shuttle people to and from hotels as far away as Dublin during shift changes. More than 700 power poles have been replaced and more than 68 miles of wire run, the company said.

The American Red Cross said it delivered about 2,500 meals to affected residents Wednesday, and it plans to deliver thousands more today. Church volunteers set up a large outdoor kitchen at Glenwood Hills Baptist Church on Rice Mill Road to handle the cooking, and meal delivery will continue as long as it's needed, the Red Cross said. The Salvation Army has been serving meals for several days at the old Home Depot parking lot at the corner of Eisenhower Parkway and Pio Nono Avenue.

Morale, even in the hardest hit areas, seemed good Wednesday. Power company workers said some people have gotten frustrated about how long it's taking to restore power. And several residents said they'd been waiting since Sunday or Monday for an insurance adjuster to arrive.

But people smile as they talk about the storm, and they wave to passers-by. Most side streets appeared to be clear of debris Wednesday, instead of having just one lane open. Tree removal crews were out in force in south Macon, pulling trees out of roofs and off of yards.

And though the first night without power brought some reports of looting at area businesses, residents in affected neighborhoods said that hasn't been a problem for them. Neighborhoods, several people said, pulled together. A man on Spencer Circle said two carloads of people from Byron showed up with chain saws Sunday to help clear the roads.

"You gotta be positive," said Gerald Rivers, who had some damage to his home on Antioch Road.

"Other people doing worse than this," he said. "Like in China. I'm alive. All my family members alive."

A few updates:

• There's a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in and around Macon this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. There's a slight risk of severe thunderstorms, mostly in the western half of Middle Georgia, according to the service. East of Macon, the chance for severe thunderstorms decreases. If the rains come, the mayor's office suggests staying off the roads. With so much debris potentially clogging storm sewers, areas may flood that usually don't. Macon-Bibb emergency personnel plan to monitor the weather and issue an alert if needed.

• People willing to donate tarps to storm victims may call the Macon-Bibb Emergency Operations Center at (478) 751-7217 or (478) 751-7218. People who need tarps can call the center at several numbers, from (478) 751-7200 through (478) 751-7209.

• Volunteers and chain saws are still needed to help people clear debris. Crews expect to be working through the weekend. Call the Macon Baptist Association Office to volunteer at (478) 750-9114.

• An emergency official cautioned those cleaning debris to watch out for snakes, which may have nestled under fallen trees.

• Relief workers said they still see a need for ice and water in the hardest hit areas. The city's public works department has been delivering ice and water, and those donations also are being coordinated by the emergency operation center. Donors should call (478) 751-7217 or (478) 751-7218.

• The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has lifted its burn ban in Bibb, Crawford, Twiggs, Laurens and Johnson counties to help people deal with debris. However, a burn permit still must be obtained from the Georgia Forestry Commission and, in many cases, the local fire department. In Bibb County, the Forestry Commission can be contacted at (478) 836-4567 and Macon-Bibb Fire Prevention can be reached at (478) 751-2700. Forestry Commission numbers for other counties are listed at www.gatrees.org.

• Bibb County has joined the city of Macon in saying residents may stack cut-up trees and limbs on the curb and crews will pick them up. It will likely take several weeks to make the pickups, but both governments said they will handle pickups for residents who can't dispose of debris themselves.

• The Bibb County Health Department said it inspected a hundred or more restaurants Wednesday. Every restaurant that lost power for a significant period of time is supposed to be inspected before it reopens, and Environmental Health Manager Tony Hester said there are at least 50 or 60 more restaurants to inspect today.

• Power was restored Wednesday at Macon State College, and the college planned to reopen its Macon campus today. Tree cutting will continue for several days, but, with few exceptions, most operations will return to normal, the college said.

Staff writers Jennifer Burk and S. Heather Duncan contributed to this report. To contact writer Travis Fain, call 744-4213.