The Columbia County Chamber of Commerce is checking in with businesses across the county to gauge their needs in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devastation.
Russell Lahodny, President and CEO of the Chamber, told ABD he and his staff split up contact information in their database and have been calling to get updates from businesses, large and small.
“The big thing is just making sure that our business community has the resources they need, letting them know that we’re here to support them through this, whether that be resources with maybe it’s FEMA or SBA, or any of the other resources available to them,” he said. “Even through their insurance companies, just making sure that they know where they can go if they need help, even just on a local level, if they need to be able to contact the county.”
His Chamber’s efforts are part of the coalition of seven CSRA Chambers of Commerce. Columbia County joined the Augusta Metro, McDuffie County, Burke County, North Augusta, and Aiken Chambers, along with the Greater Augusta Black Chamber of Commerce to create one-stop collections of information. Those were posted on each Chamber’s website and social media.
The Columbia County Chamber offices had power, and with staff able to return after sorting out any problems at home, they began calling individual businesses.
“I’ve talked to several of our members who were open the Monday after. They had power, they had internet, they had all the things they needed, and they were open and ready to help out,” said Lahodny. “Then, I’ve talked to businesses that are on the other end of the spectrum and might still be struggling with internet service or things like that. So, it’s kind of the extremes.”
Although still early in the recovery, Lahodny said, so far, just over 30% of the businesses have reported receiving some level of damage.
“Granted, it’s not a full swatch of the community, but right around 30% of the businesses said that they had any sort of physical damage,” he explained. “The majority of the business community, I think kind of came out somewhat unscathed, given the totality of everything that happened, I think the residential community seemed to take more of the burden of the storm.”
Businesses, however, are facing many of the same challenges residents have, lack of power and internet connection.
“Most of the reasons that they weren’t open were no power or no Internet, and they might have credit card machines or voice over IP phones or all of those things that require Internet connectivity in order to operate, and because they didn’t have those they couldn’t open and couldn’t operate,” he said.
Columbia County is home to some of the area’s largest employers, including John Deere, Club Car, and Amazon. Lahodny said discussions he’s had with some of the big businesses found the company facilities came through the storm and they’re supporting employees who need help.
The Chamber has also posted a survey on its website, on the Hurricane Helene Resource page. The goal is twofold. First, to help the Chamber understand the needs of the business community. Then, “So, that we could share that information, not only with our state delegation, but also our federal delegation, giving them a better understanding of the scope of the damage and also how they need support and what type of support that they need,” he said.
Lahodny said the coalition of the seven Chambers, that normally work independently of each other, is an example of working together to help throughout the region.
“This is not about us being competitive. This is about us making sure that our businesses have the resources and the information they need to get through this. I might have a contact with one representative or one of our elected officials, and another one might have a contact with FEMA, another one might have a contact with SBA,” he said. “I think it shows through all of this that really, our collective goal is to support our business community and make sure that they have everything they need.”
The resource pages are available on each Chamber’s website and social media.
Kenya Calhoun, Thomson McDuffie Chamber
https://www.thomsonmcduffiechamber.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ThomsonMcDuffieChamberofCommerce/
Terra Carroll, North Augusta Chamber
https://www.facebook.com/GNACOC
Angie Cox, Augusta Metro Chamber
https://www.augustametrochamber.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AugustaMetroChamber
Russell Lahodny, Columbia County Chamber
https://www.columbiacountychamber.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ColumbiaCountyChamber
Ashley Roberts, Burke County Chamber
https://burkechamber.org/
https://www.facebook.com/burkecountychamberga
Jim Tunison, Aiken Chamber of Commerce
https://www.aikenchamber.net/
https://www.facebook.com/AikenChamber
Ronic West, Greater Augusta Black Chamber
https://www.facebook.com/mygabc
