BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. — The smoke from the Highway 82 Fire may have disappeared in Brantley County, but for Cindy Cook, the wounds it left behind are still fresh.
“I’ve been crying for months and months. You say fire and it breaks me,” Cook said. “My life is not the same.”
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Cook’s home was one of over 100 homes destroyed in the Highway 82 Wildfire in the spring.
Cook stayed in tents for over a month as a result of the fire. However, she said that was partly her choice.
“When you went up to the place to get clothes and supplies, there were just a lot of sad people,” Cook said. “Kids, you know, chewing on their fingernails looking at the ground not knowing what they are going to do. I felt bad for them.”
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Eventually, Cook received a trailer from “Hope for Brantley,” a long-term community support organization created after the fire.
“We’ve currently got approximately 10 mobile homes that have been put in place, we’ve got RVs for everyone that identified that they needed one so we got folks in a shelter,” Brantley County Manager Joey Cason said.
Cason said the county hopes to raise money to get people into new homes through the volunteer long-term recovery group.
“What it does is it allows there to be a funnel of these donations,” Cason said.
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During a news conference Tuesday in Brantley County, Action News Jax’s Madison Foglio asked Georgia Governor Brian Kemp what his message is to people who are still without homes due to the fire.
“These recoveries are long, we’re not going to forget you, and we’re gonna continue to keep working hard to support you where we can with the resources that we have,” Kemp said.
Cook is concerned about a county ordinance that does not allow people to have RVs as a permanent residence. Foglio reached out to Cason about this.
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You can read his full statement on this and the long-term recovery group below:
“Concerning RV’s, Brantley County has a County wide ordinance that does not allow individuals or families to live in a RV as a permanent residence. Before the fire was completely out, the Board of Commissioners (BOC) waived this ordinance for folks inside of the fireprint, or the area where the fire occured. The BOC set this timeline at 1 year. If we have folks that are still in a RV, that will be reviewed at the end of a year.
“Concerning the Long-Term Recovery Group, Communities are strongly urged to create a volunteer group to oversee the recovery process. Initially I coordinated our efforts of getting the group set up. The group is made up of volunteers from various facets of the community. Dawn Deen, Family Connection Director, and they are the non-profit that all fund donations have come to. There is a 5 person Finance Committee that oversees the distribution of the donated funds.
“The County EMA Director is involved with the group. Mr. Ron Ham is currently leading the group. There are numerous nonprofits, ministries and churches involved in the group. Most are from Brantley County, but the some from the outside. This group has done amazing work. The Georgia VOAD - https://www.gavoad.org/ is doing training for the our local recovery group.
“This group meets weekly at 9am and you can join via Teams Meeting on Thursdays at 9 am.”
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