VALDOSTA — Deborah Berrien was in her bed when the hurricane passed over Valdosta.
“It was bad; it was really bad,” she said.
Berrien wound up with a damaged roof for her East Jane Street home and a large tree limb wedged just above her bed.
The Aug. 30 storm did a great deal of damage to homes around Lowndes County, catching the attention of many volunteer groups that wanted to offer help.
One of those is Samaritan’s Purse, described as a Christian disaster relief organization by Raven Walker, an assistant manager for the group. Wednesday, a group of Samaritans was working on clearing debris and doing such work as was possible to Berrien’s damaged house.
“We came down from North Carolina and set up to stage from Albany,” she said.
Much of the group’s work involves tree removal and putting tarps up on damaged roofs, Walker said.
On their third day of work, they already had 100 work orders “and they keep climbing,” she said. All of Samaritan’s Purse’s services are free, Walker said.
Volunteers for the group have been arriving daily, she said. Wednesday Samaritan’s Purse had about 20 workers in Valdosta.
The group will remain in Lowndes County until they have cleared all their work orders, Walker said.
“We just want people to know the love of Christ and to know they have not been forgotten,” she said.
Samaritan’s Purse is not the only volunteer group lending a hand — far from it. Team Rubicon, a veteran-led service group, will have about 150 staff members and volunteers working in the Valdosta region over the next 30 days, a statement from the group said.
Team Rubicon will focus on clearing downed trees, tarping damaged roofs, removing drywall, furniture, and debris in flooded homes so that affected residents can return home and rebuild their lives, the statement said.
“We know that the need in the region is great and urgent,” said Team Rubicon Incident Commander Brent McKee. “Team Rubicon has not forgotten Georgia.”