Pip: News Now Georgia — where the radar is always spinning, the crime tape is always fresh, and somehow Dolly Parton is part of the weather forecast.
Mara: Yolonda Harris has been covering a lot of ground this week — severe storms and flood alerts along the Georgia coast, a string of serious public safety incidents, civic and school stories from Bryan County to Liberty County, and a community segment that runs from wildfire recovery to a farewell to an American icon.
Pip: That is a wide net. Let’s start with what’s happening outside right now — the storms hitting coastal Georgia.
Thunderstorms and Flood Warnings Along the Georgia Coast
Mara: Doppler radar has been busy. The anchor alert here tracks a storm near Jesup and Doctortown, and the warning is direct: “Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways.”
Pip: “Do not drive through flooded roadways” — a reminder that apparently needs repeating every single storm season without fail.
Mara: It does. A separate flood advisory covered northeastern Appling County and northwestern Wayne County, with one to two inches already fallen and another one to two expected. That advisory was later cancelled. A third alert tracked a nearly stationary strong thunderstorm near Odum. And separately, there’s a post watching a disturbance that could earn the name Dolly if it develops into a tropical storm.
Pip: From storms on the ground to crime on the streets — let’s move to public safety.
Shootings, Crashes, and a Deputy Struck — Public Safety Across the Region
Mara: There’s a lot to get through here. The lead story involves a shooting at a Richmond Hill hotel, where a man was found with a gunshot wound at the Days Inn on U.S. Highway 17. The post notes: “The Richmond Hill Police Department immediately secured the area with crime-scene tape and began investigating the shooting. The investigation remains ongoing.”
Pip: No suspect, no motive — just the tape and the questions.
Mara: In Brunswick, a 43-year-old Richmond Hill man, James Randall Myers, was found fatally shot near Bay Street. A 20-year-old Brunswick man, Jason Middlebrooks, was charged with murder and multiple felonies, including possession of a stolen firearm and a stolen vehicle — though police say those thefts were unrelated to the shooting.
Mara: Over on St. Simons Island, a 19-year-old was wounded near Pier Village after a physical altercation. Sheldon Whorley of Brunswick was arrested on aggravated assault charges. And in Statesboro, a man wanted in a deadly Cinco de Mayo shooting at Azul Tex-Mex was finally captured after a public tip led U.S. Marshals to a residence — nearly four months after Gregory Johnson Jr. was killed.
Pip: Four months, one tip, one arrest. The public-tip angle matters more than it sometimes gets credit for.
Mara: Also covered: an Appling County deputy was struck by a fleeing vehicle during a possible stolen-vehicle call at a Baxley auto dealership — two people were taken into custody, and the deputy’s injuries were non-life-threatening. And separately, a man was airlifted to a trauma center after becoming heavily trapped in a box truck collision on Highway 144 near Fort Stewart, with Fort Stewart and Bryan County emergency services working together to cut him free.
Mara: On the prevention side, Georgia is running its “Hands Across the Border” DUI crackdown ahead of Labor Day, with sobriety checkpoints in multiple cities. Federal data cited in the post shows nearly forty percent of those killed in Georgia crashes during Labor Day periods from 2020 through 2024 involved a driver with a blood-alcohol concentration of at least point-oh-eight.
Pip: The enforcement window runs through the 78-hour Labor Day travel period. From the roads to the classrooms — there’s a full civic segment ahead.
School Buses, Civic Accountability, and Coastal Erosion
Mara: The Bryan County school bus story is the frame here. A bus was rear-ended on Ford Avenue at the railroad tracks, and the post updated through the evening: “Eight children were injured in the crash according to Georgia State Patrol. Four were taken to the hospital, four were turned over to their parents.”
Pip: The cause lands in a familiar place — an underage driver cited for improper lane change, released to her mother. Eight kids hurt because of a chain reaction she started.
Mara: Georgia State Patrol determined a red Silverado tried to pass in the left lane, a Mercedes SUV moved into that same lane, struck the truck, and the truck then hit the back of the bus. The Mercedes driver was at fault.
Mara: On the civic accountability front, the former Ludowici city clerk, Tina Beecher Skipper, has been indicted on six counts of felony theft by taking. The indictment covers six incidents between October and November 2025, with individual amounts ranging from $445.27 to $1,985.67. A city attorney previously said she was terminated after allegedly depositing city funds into a personal account, and that she later reimbursed the city more than ten thousand dollars.
Pip: Reimbursement after the indictment is not quite the same thing as it never happening.
Mara: In Liberty County, a beloved creekside park between Midway and Interstate 95 is losing ground — literally. Planning Commission chairman Phil Odom says the park has lost six to eight feet of solid ground to high tide. The county is now partnering with marine experts on living shorelines, replanting native marsh grasses over stabilizing mesh rather than pouring concrete.
Mara: The Liberty County School System has a separate post out — a message from the executive director of technology walking families through the transition from PowerSchool to Infinite Campus. Parents are asked to update their contact information in the Campus Parent Portal by September 2 to ensure they receive the first progress report of the year.
Mara: At the federal level, a post covers President Trump’s Rose Garden remarks warning public schools against what he called gender ideology, with executive orders reinforcing parental notification requirements. And in Atlanta, Mayor Andre Dickens sharply criticized the Democratic National Committee after Atlanta was cut from the shortlist to host the 2028 convention, with Boston, Denver, and Philadelphia moving forward. Dickens argued the decision ignores the role of Southern and Black voters in Democratic wins. Finally, the Jesse Stevens Park Pavilion was broken into and damaged — and the post raises a pointed civic question about why a tax-funded facility is kept locked from the public in the first place.
Pip: From civic questions to community care — the final segment is where the week gets quieter and heavier at the same time.
Recovery, Remembrance, and a Community Holding Together
Mara: The Brantley County wildfire recovery story anchors this segment. Four months after the Highway 82 Fire, the post is direct: “More than 80 affected families remain in need of permanent housing.” The fire destroyed 110 homes, damaged 27 others, and burned more than 22,000 acres — the most destructive wildfire for residential property loss in Georgia history.
Pip: And the need isn’t abstract — IFloat Ministries is specifically asking for donated mobile or manufactured homes that are ready to occupy or need only minor repairs.
Mara: Six donated homes have come in so far, with four needing repairs before families could move in. An $85,000 grant is helping more than 30 families repair wells and septic systems, but as the post notes, families still need a safe home to put on the property first.
Mara: On a lighter note, a Walthourville food giveaway is set for Friday at City Hall with support from Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia. And Georgia’s first Safe Haven Baby Box opens Friday at Henry County Fire Station 6 — a climate-controlled device installed in an exterior wall where a mother can place a newborn, triggering an automatic lock and an alarm to first responders inside. The Eliza Jane Warner Act, which took effect July 1, also extended Georgia’s safe-surrender period from 30 to 45 days.
Pip: A midday deer-through-the-windshield story in Midway also made the week’s coverage — the driver escaped with minor injuries, which, given the circumstances, is genuinely remarkable.
Mara: The segment closes with Joyce Marie Elliott of Ludowici, remembered by her family, and with Dolly Parton, who died August 25 at 80. Her nephew confirmed she died peacefully. The remembrance post captures it simply: her music told stories of love, heartbreak, family, hard work, and hope — and the Imagination Library she founded has placed hundreds of millions of books in children’s hands.
Pip: Storm alerts, a deputy struck, a park eroding into the tide, families still waiting for a roof — it’s a lot of Georgia in a short stretch of days.
Mara: And underneath all of it, the community threads: a food giveaway, donated homes, a baby box, a farewell to Dolly. More from News Now Georgia next time.
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