London man volunteers in Georgia in light of Hurricane Helene

Oct. 16—London man and First Presbyterian Church member Alvan Plymire recently visited Valdosta, Georgia for a week as a volunteer with Samaritan's Purse to assist with hurricane relief in the area following the effects of Hurricane Helene.

Due to the impact of the recent hurricane, Samaritan's Purse has been providing assistance in six locations across four states. The states receiving aid include Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee.

71-year-old Plymire's service in Valdosta spanned from September 29 to October 4. He shared that the damage to the city of Valdosta was primarily due to down trees — a result of the high winds. Considering this, his volunteer work mostly involved cutting up trees, removing trees from roofs, and placing tarps on roofs in order to keep them reasonably dry until a new roof could be placed.

"The job there is to get things contractor-ready, so you're going in to do the manual labor and then when we leave, it should be ready for a contractor to come in," Plymire stated. "So, we didn't repair roofs but we would get the trees off of them and put tarps on them."

He went on to share that homeowners in the area were often present. While some residents were physically unable to help, there were others who assisted as much as they possibly could.

This was not Plymire's first experience volunteering with Samaritan's Purse, as he also played a role in providing flood relief during the floods experienced by Eastern Kentucky in 2022. At that time, he went to Garrett, Jackson, and Breathitt for one week each.