By Matt Johnson
Strong storms caused widespread damage in Forsyth County Georgia last Thursday night, including temporarily cutting power to the county’s water treatment plan.
Channel 2′s Matt Johnson was in Cumming, where a boat storage facility sustained damage to nearly all of its 40 stalls.
Candy Hammond owns Hammond’s Boat Storage, where the storms sent tin from the roofs of the boat stalls into a nearby field.
“A lot of just total destruction,” Hammond said. “My husband and I built this and he’s passed away. And I just kind of fell to my knees. It was just very scary, the wind was blowing, trees were laying sideways, and it was just obviously something more than just a rain storm.”
Hammond’s has weathered some storm damage since it opened in 1989, but nothing like this.
“Something like this comes through and it hits you pretty hard,” Hammond said.
By Friday morning, the community had shown up to let the Hammond family know that they won’t let her do the hard work alone.
“I’ve got a lot of guys that’ve dropped everything they’ve done, they’ve canceled their appointments, they’ve lost out on money just to help and we appreciate every single one of them,” Hammond said.
The number of damaged buildings is still being put together by crews who are surveying the county.
The clean-up won’t happen in a day, but Hammond is happy she has help to make sure what she built with her husband lasts many more decades.
“It feels really good to know the community is really stepping in and helping us out a lot,” Hammond said.
Power issues were still an issue in the northern part of the county Friday night.
The incident is a reminder to all storage property owners to make sure they have updated all insurance policies. “Every RV and boat storage facility must develop a Risk Management Assessment and Plan. If not, this high-income asset is at the whelm of every weather-related event and incidences of theft,” explains Terry Anderson, President and CEO of Tenant Property Protection, providers of insurance products and services specific to self-storage, RV and boat storage.
“Owner/operator negligence in preparing for the risk of winds, fires and burglary has led to the rising cost of Property & Casualty insurance rates,” Anderson continues. “A Risk Management Assessment and Plan is a way to save profits and costs when faced with potential losses. Every good general business property and casualty agency in the storage industry should have a resource available to meet this need.”
