WAYNESVILLE, Ga. — Many Brantley County residents, like Megan Heiman of Hortense, Georgia, will be getting placards that allow them onto their streets, which were previously closed by the wildfires.
“It has been very, very overwhelming just the fact that you don’t know what’s gonna happen,” Heiman said.
Heiman sent Action News Jax videos and photos of the fire approaching her Warner’s Landing, Hortense home. In it, deep gray blooms of smoke like storm clouds are visible against an otherwise blue sky. The mom of two evacuated early last week after a neighbor warned them about these oncoming flames.
“The fire was coming right to our back door and he came out and yelled at us and said it’s coming right for us,” Heiman recalled.
She was able to return to her home this week on Tuesday. Heiman held a yellow placard — the golden ticket — that would allow her to see her home.
“My house is still standing…thank…thank God," Heiman said.
Heiman says she had some neighbors who stayed behind to help her fight the fires and keep them under control.
“That’s one thing about Brantley County. It’s when something bad goes wrong everybody comes together. Everybody’s there for each other,” Heiman told Action News Jax.
And the community is still helping out, even if they can’t return to their street.
It’s often preached at the church that it’s the community and not the building. Well, tents are serving as the building for Bay Harbour Brantley Church of God; they cannot access their current building.
Bay Harbor Brantley is located on Georgia 110 West, which member Elizabeth Smith tells Action News Jax is only accessible to residents, not the church. It forced their bi-weekly food pantry onto Satilla Grocery’s parking lot in Waynesville.
“We usually run about 400. We can serve up to 500 families,” said Smith. “The majority of the people here, we work together,” Smith continued.
The pantry gets its food from Second Harvest out of Brunswick. It typically runs twice a month from 10 am to 1 pm.
On Wednesday, church organizers said they’d stay at the makeshift parking lot pantry at Satilla Grocery until the food runs out.
Satilla Grocery is located at 21300 US 82, Waynesville, GA, 31566.
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