October 4, 2024: After The Storm: Jean's Notes From Helene

As the devastating fallout from Hurricane Helene continues to be uncovered, we are abundantly thankful that everyone at Steve Jackson Games is okay, and our hearts go out to those who were not so fortunate.

Here's an on-the-ground report from Jean, who does magical things with our 3D printing projects: Some things on my end (STL projects) have been delayed because my power was out until Monday (9/30). I just got my Internet back a few hours ago (Wednesday, 10/2), but aside from the contents of my refrigerator, nothing is damaged here. Irene in Atlanta had nothing worse than leaky windows, although that can't be said for the rest of Atlanta, and other parts of Georgia got hit pretty hard. The short version is that the southeast is a mess.

While most of our staff is in Texas, I work remotely from South Carolina. Helene was just ("just!") a tropical storm when it went past about a hundred miles to the west of us. You'd think that would be enough distance, but this storm was huge. My power went out about 3 am Friday (9/27) and didn't come back until Monday afternoon (not long after we'd bought the last generator in South Carolina – and then spent too much time in line to get gas for it). Here in Aiken, SC, trees are down everywhere. My next-door neighbor has a large one in his front yard.

Thankfully, his house is okay. He's not getting out of that driveway without a chainsaw, though. And his garage is missing part of its roof. (As of today, 10/2, that tree is still there). I'm really glad I got that mostly-dead pine in the back yard cut a month or so back. Here are a few more pictures of the local damage: These are downtown, right in front of the municipal building. The large yellow object used to be a traffic light:

This is a block up the street from my house (note size of person). It took several days to get this one cleared, and I think it was actually done by a neighbor with a chainsaw.

And here are a few other shots from around town:

I think my power lines are in this mess:

This is a local business:

This is the wall around the town historical museum, which is in a former mansion:

As I write this, over half the county still doesn't have power, though I'm sure they're repairing the easy problems first. I finally got back my landline phone and Internet access after only 5+ days, much to my surprise, but the net connection is dropping out at random times. Also, I'm afraid to 3D print anything because my printers do not handle power glitches well, and the power periodically drops out when they're switching it during repairs. But at least I can write!