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I just got off the phone with George (G. Newbern "Geo") and he had some terrible news.  His 12 year old pointing Labrador, Stella, was killed when a large pine toppled on top of her when Valdosta was squarely hit by Idalia.  One of his sons was able to reach the kennel; neither George nor Emily could make it through the debris field.  Stella was still alive, pinned underneath the massive tree and the only thing that could be done was for his son to put her down with a revolver.  He couldn't leave her under the tree with these conditions.  Most likely she would have died from crush injuries which instantly kill when the crushing object is removed from the body.  George said his yard looks like a lumberyard with felled trees that crushed his garage and damaged his roof. Power has not been restored to his neighborhood.   Valdosta (Lowndes County) was one of the two Georgia counties with the worst damage as Valdosta sits just above the line with Florida.   There was nothing to be said to him to make any of this better.  Gil

It was awful. Still is. Water up to my knees in the yard. Over my feet in the house. Trees down everywhere. A lot of people still without power. The worst part is Stella. She was a 12 year old lab until she saw GEO. Then she turned into a 12 month old and what a hunting drive! She was special for sure.

Prayers sent for George and his family. Bobby

Stan, we were lucky, again. Other than short lived power outage from 430 pm until 130 am, that was it. A lot of limb falls and a few uprooted large trees, but no catastrophic damage. We were on the east side of Idalia and while we had some high gusts, rainfall was not extreme as it was on the west side. Statesboro had 12" of rainfall. Gil

Just got off the phone with George. Tree crews have removed fallen trees and blue tarped his house roof to prevent further water damage. He has no power but Ga. Power texted him to expect power by tomorrow. The tree crew is from Alpharetta (above Atlanta) and removed 4 large fallen trees. The tree that fell on Stella was a water oak, not a pine. I told him of the outpouring of concern from board members and he is appreciative. Aside from losing Stella, he feels lucky that it wasn't worse. He said that Keith, another Valdosta resident board member-67galaxy-had 16" of water flood his home. Gil

Keith, I like everything you said excepting the flooding in your home and the trees down and power outage. Gil

Just got internet back. Thank you to Gil for mentioning this calamity due to Hurricane Idalia. And thank you to all for the expressions of sympathy from my friends here on Doublegun. The damage from the storm is all just a part of life except for the loss of my dog. That hurts...Geo