CLEVELAND, Ga. — White County officials now have a preliminary snapshot of the impact and cost of the major ice storm that struck the area two weeks ago.
During the February 5 White County Commission meeting, Public Safety Director David Murphy shared early figures with commissioners, estimating the cost of the storm response at just over $1.1 million. The total includes personnel, supplies, and emergency protection measures for the county as well as the cities of Helen and Cleveland.
Murphy reported 287 road impact incidents and 14,830 power outages affecting homes and businesses. Through the county’s self-damage reporting system, officials also received 25 residential damage reports.
He emphasized that the numbers remain preliminary.
“It’s valuable information that not only our elected officials need to know but also our community needs to know,” Murphy said. “Hopefully, in some point time we might be able to get some reimbursements from either the state or the federal folks to help pay for some of this.”
Murphy said one of the most important factors in successfully responding to a storm is the people working behind the scenes to clear roads and assist residents.
“I put them up against anybody in the state of Georgia. It’s just an awesome group of people from our sheriff’s office to our police departments, fire department, road department, city utility workers, our 911 operations, and emergency operations center staff,” said Murphy. “Public works, I mean, they just work hard every day, but when conditions like this come up where you have an ice storm and a snow storm, they’re getting out there in those conditions that are dangerous and are not always conducive to the environments that you want to be in, but that’s what they have a heart for — service. And I’m so proud to be part of that team of people.”
According to Murphy, the cooperation between the county, the two cities, and multiple departments stood out most during the response, a level of teamwork he said made a meaningful difference in how quickly and effectively work got done.
