The Augusta Aviation Commission heard an update from staff members on the damage suffered during Hurricane Helene.
Chief Richard Beal, the Fire Chief and EMA Director at Augusta Regional Airport, said they are still working on a formal report. What he presented on Thursday was an overview.
“The airport dealt with pretty much the same thing that the entire community did,” he said. “A lot of trees down, power issues and water issues. We had them across the airport. On top of having some of the power issues we had with Georgia Power, we had some generator issues too, but we worked through those.”
Driving into the airport from the first entrance off Doug Barnard Parkway shows both sides of the road littered with downed trees.
“We estimate about 80 to 100 trees that were downed at the airport in the first couple of hours in the aftermath of the storm,” Herbert Judon, Jr., Executive Director of the airport, told ABD. “The roadways at the airport were blocked. So the maintenance staff and some of our contractors had to actually move trees out the way to allow access to the airport in the aftermath of the storm.”
The airport was closed to all flights on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, airlines were able to gradually resume flights.
Judon said it was not just the airport systems impacted.
“For example, the FAA has a weather system that’s dependent on telephone lines to communicate weather to the pilots,” he explained. “So, there were systems that were impacted and those impacted flights in subsequent days after the storm, but by Sunday after the storm, we did try to limp along for a while to kind of resume operations.”
Chief Beal said the airport also provided support for employees and other city departments. He said the airport shared 10,115 gallons of gasoline and 4,221 gallons of diesel.
“And we serviced a broad range,” said Beal. “We started out with public safety, meaning fire department and law enforcement, and then it moved into Department of Parks because they were coming out and they needed fuel to be able to get out and cut trees so they could get to people. Also, ambulances, emergency services. It went outside of just Richmond County and started reaching into the other counties as well.”
Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson joined the commission meeting by phone. He said the airport’s assistance was vital.
“Just a coordinated effort and the critical partnership with us being able to access, not only diesel fuel for our first responder vehicles, not only for Augusta-Richmond County, but with some of our surrounding agencies that are out there,” he said. “We never anticipated needing the airport to help us maintain some of the most simple services as law enforcement and first responders, but we can’t thank you guys enough for your partnership.”
Chief Beal said the airport had one important asset. Staff members at all levels in all departments work as a team.
“It was really great to be a part of this family and this team out here at the airport. People that were on duty during it were put into positions and forced to make decisions that they felt were outside of their scope, but worked through it and did so in order to make us move forward. So that’s big. I mean, having somebody step up just because they’re forced to was pretty impressive, and they did great jobs with it,” he said.
Judon said they do not yet have a final total on the cost of the damage and recovery at the airport.
