(Meals Drink Life) – It was the incessant roar that woke most individuals within the wee hours of the morning on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Augusta, Ga. Just like the proverbial freight prepare sound that accompanies a twister. However whereas a twister is quick and comparatively short-lived, this roar continued unabated for hours.
Whereas terrified residents hunkered down inside, a devastation not like any seen within the space passed off outdoors. People had gone to mattress on the night of Sept. 26, anticipating tropical-force wind gusts of 30-35 mph in the course of the evening. As a substitute, residents of a metropolis three hours from the closest shoreline discovered themselves smack in the midst of a hurricane with 100 mph wind gusts.
When folks emerged in daylight, they discovered the panorama without end modified. The injury was catastrophic.
An surprising flip
Hurricane Helene landed on the Florida Gulf Coast as a robust Class 4 storm. Early fashions projected the storm’s northward trek towards Atlanta, weakening over land. However late on Sept. 26, Helene took a pointy flip to the east, veering off its predicted path and slamming into the Central Savannah River Space, or CSRA, as a Class 1. The area, which spans 13 counties in Georgia and 5 in South Carolina alongside the Savannah River, was not ready for a direct hit – and positively not certainly one of this depth.
Eleven lives had been misplaced within the CSRA from bushes falling on houses. The phrase warfare zone was uttered repeatedly. Fallen bushes lined roads, roofs, energy strains, buildings, automobiles – and golf programs. Whereas Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership hasn’t disclosed specifics of its injury, drone footage confirmed quite a few bushes downed throughout the course. For comparability, Champions Retreat, a golf membership just some miles away, misplaced greater than 1,400 bushes.
From the pandemic to the storm
When the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the postponement of the 2020 Masters, many thought that might be the most important disruption the match would ever see. For the primary time, Augusta Nationwide hosted the occasion in November, however no patrons had been in attendance. Native companies struggled, and the town misplaced hundreds of thousands in tourism {dollars}.
Quick ahead to 2024, and Augusta once more confronted the potential for dropping the Masters – this time to a storm quite than a virus. After Hurricane Helene tore by way of the area, uncertainty hung within the air. Might the town recuperate in time?
The Augusta Rule and the scramble for leases
Yearly, householders in Augusta hire out their houses to patrons, gamers, media and sponsors throughout Masters week. It is a custom that is been a part of the town’s tradition for many years – and one which received a lift in 1976 with what’s now often called the Augusta Rule. Formally added to the federal tax code as Part 280A(g), the rule permits householders to hire their houses for as much as 14 days every year with out reporting the revenue on their taxes.
Augusta’s resort capability cannot help the group alone. Many firms lease a number of houses at a time – one as a number home and others as sleeper houses. In keeping with Golf Digest, host houses usually command six-figure weekly leases, whereas Golfweek reviews sleeper houses vary from $10,000 to greater than $30,000.
After the storm, that custom was in jeopardy. Some houses had been too broken to record. Others had been racing in opposition to the clock to restore roofing, fencing or water injury. The Nationwide Hurricane Heart launched a report detailing Helene’s aftermath, which stated that within the Augusta space, practically 400 houses had been destroyed, with one other 3,000 having main injury and three,500 with average injury. However even with few contractors out there, insurance coverage difficulties and price-gouging by tree removing firms, by late February, many listings had returned.
Stacey Greenway, vp at Event Housing and Occasions, echoed that sentiment. “There are undoubtedly some houses that aren’t going to be out there for hire this 12 months, however fortunately, they weren’t already rented,” she stated. “So we have referred to as a number of householders and stated, ‘Hey, are you out there?’ However they stated they will not be capable of hire, so we simply needed to transfer on.
“However so far as any homes that had been already contracted, all of them have been in a position to make their repairs, and we’ll be prepared. If any city can pull it collectively, it is Augusta.”
Augusta Nationwide’s response
Within the quick aftermath, Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership remained silent aside from a short assertion expressing help for the neighborhood and saying they had been assessing injury to the course. The membership donated $5 million towards neighborhood restoration efforts.
Given the utter destruction within the surrounding neighborhoods and streets, hypothesis ran excessive that the well-known golf course had sustained in depth injury. Lastly, in January, because the match drew nearer, Chairman Fred Ridley spoke in regards to the course’s situation and the membership’s function within the metropolis’s restoration.
“So far as the affect, the lengthy‑time period affect, we have now not fairly as many bushes as we did a 12 months in the past,” Ridley stated. “So far as the golf course goes, it is in spectacular situation. I feel we had minor injury to the course, the taking part in surfaces themselves, however we had been in a position to get that again in form, however I do not suppose you are going to see any distinction within the situation for the Masters this 12 months.
“Hurricane Helene was actually a devastating occasion for the Augusta neighborhood and for a variety of communities within the Southeast, notably in western North Carolina, which I do know you most likely examine. We suffered a good quantity of affect from the hurricane, as did all the neighborhood.
“I feel what I am most happy with is the response of our complete group to that pure catastrophe, which is admittedly what it was. And never solely what they did to get Augusta Nationwide again in form, however as importantly, how they pitched in with the Augusta neighborhood and actually helped out as a result of there have been many, many individuals – a lot of our folks had been out of their houses for a variety of weeks. No electrical energy. The neighborhood did not have water for some time. So, I am simply actually happy with how our complete group responded to that.”
And whereas the storm’s affect was seen all through the town, many by no means doubted that the course could be pristine by April. Anecdotally, amongst locals, Augusta Nationwide is understood for its capacity to make the match expertise nearly magical for its patrons. In years previous, native lore has it {that a} tree fell in the course of the evening on one of many restrooms on the course. Earlier than patrons arrived the next day on the match, the tree had been eliminated, and the constructing was restored as if nothing had ever occurred.
Regardless of bushes scattered throughout Augusta like matchsticks, locals had been assured within the Nationwide’s capacity to recuperate. Ask anybody on the town, and so they’d inform you that by April, no customer would guess a hurricane had roared by way of six months earlier.
Citywide restoration and cleanup
The scope of restoration was monumental. Richmond County hauled away 59,456 a great deal of particles – a staggering 3,168,495 cubic yards. That is sufficient to fill greater than 950 Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools or practically three Empire State Buildings.
Columbia County had already collected greater than 3 million cubic yards by January. In keeping with Chief Engineer Kyle Titus, a particles monitoring agency and a catastrophe contractor managed eight subcontractors, eradicating 45,000 cubic yards of particles day by day.
The biggest energy restoration in Georgia’s historical past
Georgia Energy says that Hurricane Helene was essentially the most harmful hurricane within the firm’s 140-year historical past. Helene knocked out energy to 1.5 million Georgians, shattering 11,800 energy poles and damaging practically 5,800 transformers. Georgia Energy mobilized 20,000 staff from 35 firms throughout North America in its largest restoration effort ever.
Within the CSRA alone, crews eliminated over 1,000 downed bushes and practically 11,000 harmful limbs. Greater than 250 vans labored day by day throughout Richmond and Columbia counties, clearing particles and restoring energy. Whereas most of Georgia regained electrical energy inside eight days, some residents waited weeks for the lights to come back again on.
Again to custom – and the meals that defines it
Past the fairways, the Masters’ iconic meals returns: pimento cheese and egg salad sandwiches for $1.50, the peach ice cream sandwich and the signature pulled pork barbecue or hen salad on white bread. For locals and followers, these aren’t simply snacks. They’re a part of what makes the Masters really feel timeless – and proof that Augusta’s traditions endure, even after one of many worst pure disasters within the metropolis’s historical past.
Augusta is prepared
This 12 months’s match will not simply be about who slips on the inexperienced jacket. It will likely be a logo of perseverance for the town, the area and the individuals who made it doable. The azaleas are blooming. The gates will open. Towards all odds, Augusta is prepared.
Lucy Brewer is an expert author and fourth-generation Southern cook dinner who based Southern Meals and Enjoyable. She’s enthusiastic about preserving basic Southern recipes whereas creating straightforward, crowd-pleasing dishes for the trendy residence cook dinner. Lucy presently lives in Augusta, Ga.
