DECATUR COUNTY, GA — Rob Cohen lost 29,000 pecan trees and 100 acres of land in three hours. Now, emergency officials are urging families to prepare before the next storm.
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Hurricane season is underway, and emergency preparedness is top of mind for many families across Southwest Georgia. For Rob Cohen, the urgency is personal.
Farming is more than a job for Cohen — it is a family legacy. As a second-generation pecan farmer, he had weathered storms before, but nothing prepared him for Hurricane Michael.
"Hurricane came through and pretty much in three hours destroyed two generations' worth of work," Cohen said.
29,000 trees and 100 acres of land were destroyed within hours. What took a lifetime to build would take months to recover.
That devastation changed more than the pecan farm. It reshaped what Cohen values most.
"Life is precious and to not be so caught up in material things," Cohen said.
Those lessons are ones Salvation Army Service Center Director Merreann McDonald hopes families will take to heart. She says preparation begins long before a storm enters the forecast.
"You're looking at your home as a safe place, evaluate things, walk outside look at the proximately before you develop a plan as to where the family is going to relocate in the home during an emergency make sure that you've survey the property and you know that okay if a tree falls it gonna go this way we don't need to put ourselves in this hallway we need to go to the other end of the house," McDonald said.
McDonald says having those discussions ahead of time — and making sure everyone in the family knows the plan and has a role in it — will make things less stressful during an emergency.
The Salvation Army encourages families to create an emergency plan, build a disaster supply kit, and stay informed throughout hurricane season.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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