On Saturday, October 8th, 2016, thousands of United States citizens on the East coast woke up to chaos and destruction as a result of Hurricane Matthew. Statesboro and surrounding Bulloch County towns were just a few of the areas hit by this natural disaster. Statesboro was supposed to be the "safe haven" for the police officers, emergency responders, power linemen, and even the people that stayed to wait out the little bit of rain and wind expected. Instead, Statesboro was hit harder than any resident had seen in years. Over 20,000 people in this one area were without water and power and still, days later we had almost 3,000 people in these same conditions.

With no prior experience dealing with a natural disaster of this magnitude, Statesboro and Bulloch County had no one place to look for any alerts or updates. Enter DeWayne Grice: local businessman, insurance agent, Bulloch county resident and just an overall amazing citizen. He started reporting to the public about all the updates around the county he could find late Friday Night, whether it was power outage updates, schools, water, or even cell service. He soon had an upwards of 10,000 people following him on social media, calling, texting, and depending on him for updates on this community.

Here's a bit of insight as to how Bulloch county has been doing since Hurricane Matthew:

Day One: Saturday, October 8, 2016

Outages:

12:30 AM: GPC- 8,296/ EMC- 8,638

6:00 AM: GPC- 13,942/ EMC- 15,341

11:00 AM: GPC- 16,221/ EMC- 14,315

2:45 PM: GPC- 15,140/ EMC- 12,612

6:45 PM: GPC- 11,859/ EMC- 9,991

10:30 PM: GPC- 11,001/ EMC- 10,082

GPC = Georgia Power Company
EMC= Excelsior Electric Membership Corporation

News:

Trees covered main roads, undrivable conditions and little to no power citywide. DeWayne saw a need and immediately started to figure out how to fix it. Hundreds of Police were housed at Georgia Southern's Recreational Activity Center, while Linemen were stationed at the Kiwanis Fair Grounds.

Day Two: Sunday, October 9, 2016

Outages:

8:40 AM: GPC- 8,944/ EMC- 8,939

11:00 AM: GPC- 7,891/ EMC- 8,915

6:00 PM: GPC- 4,360/ EMC- 9,991

10:00 PM: GPC- 2,710/ EMS- 7,244

GPC = Georgia Power Company
EMC = Excelsior Electric Membership Corporation

News:

Reports stated that power crews worked through the night to restore power to over 12,000 people so far. Nursing homes were still without power as of 12 pm. But, crews from Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana had just arrived to assist in any way they could to help get power and water back on as fast as they could. After driving around the town on Saturday, Grice realized how much damage had been done and how little organization there was to get things up and moving again. Access to the food back was not available due to the street being completely flooded. So, DeWayne made his first "Volunteer Call" at noon for sandwich makers and servers. Later that afternoon, reports of contraflow on I-16 had ended- but not notifying travelers that the contraflow was still up until Bulloch's exit to Highway 301; leaving stranded motorists just sitting along side the road there until it was their turn to go home.

The town stepped up completely. The volunteers showed up, preparing and giving out free food and sandwiches at PoJo's Convenience Store, Southern Cakes Bakery served a free hot spaghetti meal, the soup kitchen at First United Methodist Church opened, and Rebecca's Cafe opened to feed sandwiches and hot meals to those in need.

The first volunteer call for opening places for showers happened at 7:30 pm.

Day Three: Monday, October 10, 2016

Outages:

7:00 AM: GPC- 2,365/ EMC- 7,446

11:00 AM: GPC- 2,479/ EMC- 6,519

1:00 PM: GPC- 2,154/ EMC- 6,236

5:00 PM GPC- 1,800 / EMC- Website Down

10:00 PM: GPC- 1,256/ EMS- Still No Report

GPC = Georgia Power Company
EMC = Excelsior Electric Membership Corporation

News:

Early Monday morning Grice shared a powerful photo:

"Hundreds of power linemen- Many of them drove hours to help and slept in their trucks- True Heroes."

Late Sunday evening Grice decided to create a Facebook page for Operation Coastal Freedom- Bulloch, so there could be one place everyone could go to get information on relief and restoration efforts. Monday morning a "Go Fund Me" page was created to assist in the relief efforts. Splash In The Boro opened their facility for the hundreds still without power and water to take showers from 4-8 PM, since the RAC and Fairgrounds were already occupied by the emergency responders.

https://www.gofundme.com/bullochcounty

Over 1,600 meals were given out at First United Methodist Church and Rebecca's Cafe. Almost 400 bags of food were distributed at the food bank and Christian Social Ministries on East Parrish Street. Broken Shackle Ranch at Nevils FUMC cooked and served free hot meals- hamburgers starting at 5 PM.

Day Four: Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Outages:

8:00 PM: GPC- 969/ EMC- 1,860

GPC = Georgia Power Company
EMC = Excelsior Electric Membership Corporation

News:

Splash In The Boro re-opened their facilities due to the amount still without power and water, from 6 AM to 2 PM. Once again the community was on the ball. Free hot meals were served at Rebecca's Cafe and the Soup Kitchen provided bags of food for pick up and delivery!

Day Five: Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Outages:

8:50 AM: GPC- 965/ EMC- 1,491

3:00 PM: GPC- 774/ EMC- 663

GPC = Georgia Power Company
EMC = Excelsior Electric Membership Corporation

News:

Wednesday morning, Excelsior Power had over 305 linemen from across the country from their sister companies. People from surrounding cities opened their homes, washers and dryers to do laundry for our power heroes who had been working days and nights in the same clothes they came to rescue our beloved county in. BiLo supermarket gave out free bags of ice to the community. South East Bulloch Cross Country Team made a cash donation to the relief efforts.

As of Thursday evening, almost all power had been restored. The rest of the week was spent focusing on the weekend's big relief effort project: This Saturday, Operation Coastal Freedom- Bulloch was finalizing relief efforts of "Phase 1". A 40,000-pound food drop, turned magically into 80,000 pounds to help out the people of Bulloch county and surrounding areas.

Over 600 people came out to volunteer this week, and for this major food drop. Over the course of just one week, the community came together and raised almost $15,000. Over 8,000 hot meals were cooked and served. Over 5,000 people were reached and helped by the bagged food and only 57 people are still without power. WOW. What a community.

The last food drop will be Monday, October 17, at Christian Social Ministries from 1-5PM.

Phase 2 of relief efforts will begin next week: Clean Up and Restoration.

I couldn't be more proud of the little town that has done some BIG things this week to help each other out. Statesboro ISAmerica's Best Community and they proved that this week with open and giving hearts.