Emanuel County, UGA partnership turning lessons from Historic Hurricane into action

Even five months after Hurricane Helene tore through Emanuel County, we’re still learning from it. Last Friday, we took an important step in that learning process—welcoming a group of students from the University of Georgia’s PROPEL Rural Scholars Program to our Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to begin work on a before, during, and after Helene report.

This report will serve two key purposes: to help us develop a storm-specific hazard mitigation plan and to document what we learned from Helene, ensuring that if we ever face a storm like this again, we’ll be better prepared. Most importantly, by identifying challenges and resource gaps, this comprehensive report will enable us to seek out grant opportunities that could help fund solutions before the next storm ever forms.

Our PROPEL Scholars

The UGA PROPEL Rural Scholars Program is an initiative housed within the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. Designed to equip students with real-world experience in rural policy and development, the program selects a small group of outstanding undergraduate students each year to tackle community-driven projects across Georgia. Scholars engage in hands-on research, collaborate with local leaders, and propose actionable solutions that directly benefit rural communities.

For this project, four scholars have been assigned to Emanuel County: Taylor Siefken, Yash Sajjan, Christian Dent, and Macy Hall.

They’re led by Dr. Kristin Miller, head of the UGA PROPEL Rural Scholars Program.

Also in attendance were Rhiannon Eades and Sara Ingram from UGA’s public relations team as well as Graduate Research Assistant Cammi Rogers.

Why This Matters

Hazard mitigation—or, in simple terms, the steps we take now to reduce damage and disruption in the future—is a crucial part of emergency preparedness. Helene taught us a lot, and we’re making sure we put those lessons to good use.

Originally, the PROPEL Scholars were planning a different project for Emanuel County, but their first planning meeting fell just weeks after Helene, when our focus was still on recovery. Rather than postpone their work, we asked, “What if we pivoted?” That question led to this project—a deep dive into our storm response, what worked, what didn’t, and what we need to do differently moving forward.

What We Covered

We structured the meeting in two parts to make the most of the scholars’ time with us.

Morning Session (10:30 AM – 12 PM): Hearing First-Hand Accounts

We started the day by giving the scholars critical background on the storm’s impact through the eyes of those who responded. Our county administration, public safety, emergency management, and public works teams shared:

What we expected ahead of the storm.

Our respective experiences during the storm.

The immediate aftermath, or what we saw when we first stepped outside.

The long-term challenges we faced, including extended power outages.

A first look at some of the biggest obstacles we encountered.

This session helped the scholars get a clear picture of what happened from multiple perspectives, setting the stage for the deeper discussions to come.

Following lunch, provided by county public safety, we moved into the second half of the meeting.

Afternoon Session (1 – 2:30 PM): Community Stakeholders & Solution-Finding

By the afternoon, the EOC was packed. Nearly 40 community stakeholders joined us, including county and municipal leaders, emergency responders, Georgia Power representatives, foresters, firefighters, and school officials. We divided into three rotating groups, each tackling the same key questions:

“What did we do well?”

“What did we learn?”

“What would we do differently?”

Once each group had cycled through all three discussions, we came back together to share our findings. This led to some critical realizations—and some clear action items.

For example, we identified that our smaller municipalities struggled with water access during power outages. As a result, we added backup generators for our smaller towns to our list of priority needs for future grant funding. We also discussed setting up agreements with rental companies for heavy equipment like skid steers, so we have the tools needed for clean-up staged and ready to go immediately after a storm rather than scrambling to find them.

We also recognized that some key voices were missing from the conversation. The PROPEL Scholars will conduct interviews with those individuals in the coming weeks, ensuring we get as full a picture as possible before they start writing.

What’s Next

Now that our first in-person meeting is complete, the scholars are moving into the interview and research phase of the project. Over the next few months, they will:

✅ Conduct stakeholder interviews to gather additional insights.

✅ Review existing hazard mitigation plans, identifying weaker areas that need improvement.

✅ Begin drafting an after-action summary and a storm-specific improvement report for Emanuel County.

✅ Check in with us regularly for guidance and validation to ensure their findings reflect our county’s needs.

The full project is set to really unfold over the next several months with tentative key milestones along the way: