A few of Polk County’s own have been out helping those in need in other areas of the state following the impact of Hurricane Helene last week on the southeast.

Earlier this week, Polk County Fire-Rescue Chief Mike Hanuscin was joined by Cedartown & Polk County firefighter Austin Temple when they made a trip with a fire truck down to Jeff Davis County to help out with relief efforts.

Polk’s pair of firefighters who went to help took Tanker 6 with them and were joined by Rome firefighters as well with a tanker truck to help in the City of Hazlehurst.

They took on 32 incidents from Monday through today, which also included a structure fire and wreck and several other incidents.

The fire department joined others helping out from Cherokee, Franklin, Lee, Peach and Sumter counties during the 72-hour deployment.

Polk County EMA Coordinator Landon Hendrix went out of town twice to help out as well.

Hendrix volunteered his time over the weekend following the storm’s immediate impact at the State Operations Center for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency in Atlanta. He then went onward to Treutlen County to lend a hand as well in recovery efforts.

He also manned the local Emergency Operations Center along with other local officials overnight during the storm. The damage wasn’t minor in comparison to other communities, but it was a precautionary measure taken while Hurricane Helene had been on a direct path toward west Georgia and Polk County in particular.

A wide area of South and East Georgia was impacted by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall last week and cut through Georgia toward the Carolinas and East Tennessee, where extensive storm and flood damage followed in its wake.

Relief efforts are underway locally to help with donations of items needed in communities. Those include a semi being loaded next to the Cedartown Fire Department to take to Jefferson County to help with supplies in the area.

Photos provided by the Polk County Fire-Rescue Facebook page.