Here's how Grovetown is helping rebuild a North Carolina town that Helene mowed down

Magon Hof will begin cleaning up the damaged City Hall and Police Building in Marshall, NC on October 1, 2024, after catastrophic flooding of the nearby French Broad River caused by the remnants of Hurricane Helene destroyed much of the area.

Hurricane Helene reminded thousands of Augusta area residents that even when you need help, there is always someone who needs more help.

As the city of Grovetown continues to clean up and repair storm damage, the police department is donating two of its vehicles to a small North Carolina town crippled by flood damage.

When Helene hit Marshall, NC as a tropical storm, it destroyed City Hall and everything within it, including the police station that served the city of fewer than 900 residents.

“We have suffered losses of everything from vehicles to mouse pads, and absolutely everything else that was located at the building, including the physical building,” Marshall Police Chief Kenny T. Brown wrote in an Oct. 24 letter to Grovetown.

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To narrow down a list of needs, he said, “it’s our equivalent of someone wanting to start a new business.” Donors large and small, from Indiana to New Hampshire, have begun sending supplies in a slow rebuilding process.

Chief Jamey Kitchens of the Grovetown Department of Public Safety told the Grovetown City Council on Tuesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has informed Marshall officials that it could be “more than three years” before the city sees full refunds from the government for lost equipment and infrastructure.

Marshall officers conduct patrols in their personal vehicles, Kitchens said. But Grovetown police will be bringing two of the recently surplus 2018 Ford Taurus cruisers to Marshall.

“Everyone I talked to there says whatever you see on the news doesn’t do it justice,” Kitchens said. “I think this is the right step to help them.”

The city council voted unanimously on Tuesday evening to approve the intergovernmental transfer of ownership.

This article originally appeared in Augusta Chronicle: Grovetown provides Helene with aid in the devastated North Carolina town