VALDOSTA — Wearing a large white T-shirt, blue baseball cap and gardening gloves, 77-year-old Betty Welch and her great-grandson cleaned up debris from Hurricane Michael.

Residents all across Valdosta woke up early Thursday morning to find their yards littered with pine cones and loose limbs but mostly spared by the Category 4 hurricane that left parts of Florida devastated. Other locations to the west and south of Valdosta were not as lucky.

Stocked up on water, food and gas for the generator, Welch and her family weathered out the storm at their home on Linda Drive.

“It could have been much worse,” Welch said. “We’re really blessed it wasn’t that bad last night.”

Whenever a massive storm hits, her biggest fear is one of the 30-foot-tall pines surrounding her home will be blown over and land on the house. She said if she could afford it, she would have all the trees around her house cut down.

Lowndes County Emergency Management Agency reported there were no injuries in the county or city because of Michael.

The City of Valdosta received more than 50 calls for fallen trees and large limbs during and after the storm.  With about 3,500 scheduled customer pickups daily, the overall cleanup could take several weeks to accomplish, according to officials.

While cleanup occurs, Lowndes County Schools, Wiregrass Georgia Technical College and Valwood School have extended their school closures to Oct. 12. Valdosta City Schools, Valdosta State University and Georgia Military College will reopen Friday, and Scintilla Charter Academy will be on its fall break. 

Advanced Disposal and Deep South Sanitation will be accepting yard debris at waste collection centers.

Georgia Power reported it began its first day of full-scale damage assessment Thursday. 

“There has been significant damage due to high winds, heavy rain and fallen trees in the hardest hit areas, including Albany, Americus, Bainbridge, Macon, Valdosta, Vidalia and other areas leaving nearly 175,000 customers without power,” Georgia Power stated in a release.

Damage assessment marks the first phase of the restoration process, and Georgia Power has crews in the field assessing damage to begin the restoration process, followed by repair crews.

Also out cleaning up debris Thursday morning was the Murphy family.

Adam Murphy, a fifth-grade teacher at Valwood School, said his family left when Hurricane Irma hit about this time last year, but decided to stay for Michael.

Three weeks before Michael hit, they had eight trees removed from their front and back yards. Without the trees, he said his family felt much safer staying at home.

“One of the trees looked like it would come down at any moment,” Murphy said. “(Now) all we have is a mess, and I’ll take it.”

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256