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THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. MARCH 12, 2009 — PAGE 3A
Aftermath .cont’dfrom 1A
building because it can be replaced,
but because of what could have
happened,” Mrs. Wages said. "The
Lord just had hais protection upon
them.”
The Wages, who had been prepar
ing to receive chickens last Sunday
afternoon, lost one of their three
chicken houses on their Booger Hill
Road farm.
Mrs. Wages said they filed
the claim with Farm Bureau on
Monday and the settlement check
arrived on Friday. But while they
will continue to grow for Pilgrim’s
Pride in their other two houses, they
won’t replace the one that they lost.
“It was too old to get replacement
costs on it and with the economy
like it is, we won’t be replacing it.”
she said.
The Wages aren’t alone.
Chicken farmers across Madison
County are reeling from the effects
of last week’s eight-inch snow.
Department of Agriculture repre
sentatives said there were a total
of 11 chicken farms affected in
the county last week, with 14 total
chicken houses down.
Madison County Farm Bureau
Agency Manager Steve Young said
his company received claims for
eight and a half chicken houses
damaged last week, with an esti
mated $750,000 worth of damage.
Farm Bureau received approxi
mately 100 claims in all last week,
with numerous people reporting
collapsed carports.
Like the Wages, Bobby Caudell
won’t be replacing the chicken
house he lost on his Hwy. 191
farm.
Caudell said his 548-foot house
went down about 4 a.m. Monday
morning, but luckily his last batch
of chickens had just been picked
up.
Caudell said he woke up when
the house fell, but thought it was
the state road crews scraping the
highway and didn’t see what had
happened until daylight. If the
economy was different, he might
rebuild, he said, but as it is now. he
doesn’t plan on it.
The roof of one of Doug Patton’s
nine chicken houses collapsed
under the weight of snow. Patton,
of Shiloh Fort Lamar Road, had
19,000 chickens in the house and
9,000 were lost in the incident.
‘ A company we grow for brought
a crew in and we salvaged about
10,000 birds," said Patton, who
contracts with Harrison Poultry out
of Bethlehem.
Patton said he was out of power
from Sunday to Thursday after
noon. He had generators connect
ed to wells that serve the chicken
houses.
“The chickens weren’t without
power but we were," he said.
Patton said last week was cer
tainly tough.
“It’s been unreal,” said Patton,
adding that last week’s power out
age wasn’t as bad as the ice storm
of 1979, which led to a lack of
electricity for seven days.
Troy Chandler, Rogers Mill
Road, said he discovered the col
lapsed roof of one of his six chicken
houses around 8 p.m. Sunday. The
farmer, who contracts with Pilgrim’s
Pride, said there were about 25,000
chickens in the house that were
about three-and-a-half weeks old.
He lost about 10,000.
Chandler, who said he plans to
start rebuilding his chicken house
this week, said he was without
from power Sunday night until
Wednesday on one of his farms
and from Sunday to Thursday on
the other.
“It reminded me of the old days,”
he said. “I was bom before power
ever got here."
Chandler said he knows he’s not
alone with his chicken house trou
bles last week.
“There’s a bunch of us in the
same boat,” he said. “But we’ll
survive.”
John Mason of Shoal Creek
Road, Colbert, lost two of his four
chicken houses Sunday during the
snowstorm. Mason, who contracts
with Pilgrim’s Pride, lost an esti
mated 42.000 chickens.
“It’s a little bit devastating," he
said.
Mason, who has been a chicken
farmer for 22 years, heard both
houses collapse within around a
five-hour span Sunday. The first fell
between 4 and 5 p.m. Sunday and
the second fell around 9 p.m.
Mason said he was out of power
between Sunday and Tuesday last
week. He said he’s not sure if he’ll
rebuild.
“There’s not a whole lot we can
do,” he said. "We’re not going to
rebuild right now. We’ll have to
think about
Of course, chicken houses
weren’t the only structures lost in
the storm. Alan Colmes and Trm
Hollifield. co-owners of Georgia
Metal Finishing, lost their new
20.000-foot structure at Madico
Park last week.
Colmes said the structure col
lapsed Monday around 2 a.m. He
said firefighters came to Madico
Park to get water as they battled a
nearby fire and heard the structure
collapse.
The owners, both Madison
County residents, still have their
Georgia Metal facility in Colbert
and are speaking with insurers, try
ing to determine what they will do
next.
“We want people to know that
we’re still in business," said Colmes.
“We’re trying to stay positive and
upbeat. God’s on our side and we
will get through this."
Hollifield said he is glad no one
was in the building when it col
lapsed. He said the community has
been supportive since the incident.
“A lot of neighbors have stopped
by," said Hollifield. “It’s a good
county. That’s why we’re here.”
Snowstorm 911 calls
Here is a breakdown of
calls to the Madison County
911 Center March 1-3:
•March 1: 1,222 total
calls.
•March 2: 596 calls.
•March 3: 214 calls.
•Three-day total: 2,032.
•Power/phone line down:
272 calls.
•Roads blocked: 216.
•Motor vehicle accidents,
no injuries: 52.
•Motor vehicle accidents,
with injuries: 5.
•Fires related to downed
power lines: 44.
•Structure fires: 6.
Students to make up one snow day Friday
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
One of the three snow days
Madison County students
enjoyed last week will be made
up Friday.
The Madison County Board of
Education (BOE) approved the
change to the school calendar
Tuesday night.
Friday was originally a teacher
workday.
Superintendent Mitch McGhee
canceled classes March 2-4 after
eight inches of snow bombarded
the county March 1. Teachers,
however, worked March 4.
The aftermath of the snowstorm
included power outages at the
schools and downed trees along
bus routes.
The school board has a limited
number of missed days that it
can forgive, and McGhee noted
that unpredictable spring weather
still awaits the school system. So
he suggested making up one of
the days.
“We still have some spring
weather and some things we have
to go through," he said. “It is not
uncommon that we have to miss
a day.”
Make-up dates have been a hot
topic among teachers, parents and
students.
“We have, and y’all probably
have too, been inundated with,
‘what are we going to do about
the make-up days?” McGhee said
to the BOE.
McGhee said principals and
administrators came to a consen
sus to use Friday as a make-up
day. He added that the teachers’
forum he regularly meets with
“were unanimous in choosing
to go that route." Elementary
teachers were almost "adamant,"
according to McGhee, about add
ing Friday as a regular instruction
day because of CRCT prepara
tion.
The make-up day didn’t pass
unanimously, however, among
the school board.
Chairman Jim Patton voted
against the make-up day because
he'd already pre-arranged for
doctor’s appointments for his
children that day.
“I just think that I would look
like a hypocrite if I said, ‘yes,
you’ve got to go to school and
then my kids aren’t there,'” Patton
said.
The school board still has to
address teacher make-up days.
Teacher must work the two days
they missed.
STUDENTS MIGHT HAVE
MISSED A FOURTH DAY
There was plenty of thanks to
go around for those who guided
the school system through the
winter storm of 2009.
“I would like to publicly com
mend our transportation staff and
our maintenance staff," McGhee
said.
He specifically praised the
efforts of transportation director
Tom West and assistant direc
tor Phillip Croya as well as Ned
Graham and his maintenance
staff, which allowed the system
to resume classes last Thursday.
“They did a tremendous job to
allow us to have teachers in here
Wednesday (March 4) and kids
back here on Thursday (March
5)," McGhee said.
According to the superinten
dent, the county government
thought classes might have to be
called off again on March 5 due
to trees and power fines still down
on dirt roads.
But the transportation crew
spent March 4 redesigning routes
around those obstacles.
Just one bus became stuck on
March 5 after the driver went off
road to avoid a downed power
fine. That bus was pulled out by
school system truck and those
students arrived to school only
five to 10 minutes late.
As for the power outages at the
schools, walk-in coolers remained
at safe temperatures, so food
stored there wasn’t lost. However,
food stored in the reach-in cool
ers — leftovers and condiments
largely — couldn’t be salvaged.
County-wide that only amount
ed to $1,400 worth of food prod
ucts lost.
“That was really a whole
lot better than we expected,”
McGhee said.
There was no structural damage
found at any of the school system
campuses or buildings.
The high school, however, lost
internet service and didn't regain
it until Tuesday.
to calculate storm costs
County
By Zach Mitcham
zach@mainstreetnews.com
Madison County
Commission Chairman
Anthony Dove said the
county government is
assessing costs from last
week’s storm and will
turn in a dollar figure to
the Georgia Emergency
Management Agency for
potential funding support.
“We will be compiling
those numbers and turning
those in to GEMA,” said
Dove.
But he voiced doubt about
Madison County getting
any state funding assistance
related to the storm.
“I’m not sure that we can,”
Dove told the commission
ers Monday. “It’s a massive
amount of money that you
have to show as a region;
$10.7 million is what we
have to show. We cannot
count everything. We can’t
count anything but over
time, uninsured damage
and also some equipment
costs.”
Dove said citizens can
take storm debris to the
county transfer station. For
the next six weeks, storm
debris will be accepted on
Mondays and Tuesdays,
when the station is nor
mally closed, but no solid
waste will be taken. (See
Page 2Afor more on this).
“This (the debris at the
transfer station) also gives
us a count on how much
tonnage we have to give
to GEMA later on,” said
Dove.
The chairman read a let
ter to the audience Monday,
thanking those who worked
during and after the storm
to help clear roads, assist
those in need and restore
power. (See the letter on
Page 5A).
In a separate matter, Dove
said he wants citizens to
know that he is available to
speak to their groups about
local issues. He said he
would like to hold town hall
meetings in each district so
people have an opportunity
to address him directly with
their concerns.
Dove said this week
that there has been some
misunderstanding about
why a state of emergency
was not declared after the
snowstorm. He said that the
county was in constant con
tact with GEMA, discuss
ing the situation.
“We were in touch with
GEMA the entire time,” he
said. “The only thing they
(the state) really could have
provided was a forestry
unit.”
The forestry unit could
have helped the clear trees
from the roads, but Madison
County's road department
and volunteer firemen were
out in force handling that
task. Dove said the forestry
unit could not have cleared
trees from power lines.
“No one can cut trees off
power lines but power peo
ple," he said.
The chairman said state
aid would not have restored
power any quicker last
week. The county suffered
infrastructure damage, with
80 power poles and two
towers down and the repair
of that infrastructure had to
be done by the power com
panies, who are trained to
handle the dangerous tasks.
“I think there was a mis
understanding from some
people who thought that
(declaration of an emer
gency) would have restored
their power quicker,” he
said. “That was not the
case.”
Dove noted that 24,000
customers were without
power and that Georgia
Power and Jackson EMC
worked hard to restore ser
vices as quickly as pos
sible.
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