Governor Brian Kemp Tuesday issued a State of Emergency order for all counties in Georgia in preparation for Hurricane Ian’s impact later this week. As the storm moves through the state beginning on Friday and exiting on Sunday, heavy rainfall and damaging winds will be possible throughout Georgia, officials say.
The State of Emergency will go into effect at 7 a.m. on Thursday, September 29, and will expire at midnight on Friday, October 28.
READ Kemp’s executive order here
The governor’s executive order frees up state resources to respond in the event of emergencies.
Georgia activated its State Operations Center Monday morning to ensure that state, local, and federal agencies are closely coordinating on storm preparations and response.
The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA/HS) remains at a Level 2 elevated activation level. GEMA/HS teams are standing by to deploy to affected counties, when appropriate, the governor’s office says.
GEMA/HS Director Chris Stallings is providing live updates on weather conditions and emergency preparedness through the GEMA/HS Facebook page (see below).
Expected storm impacts
Hurricane Ian is expected to reach Category 4 status before slowly weakening Tuesday night and during its expected landfall Wednesday and Thursday over west-central Florida. The storm is expected to impact Southeast Georgia as a tropical storm or tropical depression with heavy rainfall.
Starting Friday, Ian will likely impact Southeastern Georgia as a tropical storm or tropical depression with heavy rainfall. Though there is still uncertainty about its ultimate path on Friday and into the weekend, tropical storm force sustained winds of over 40 mph will be possible across all of Georgia on Friday and Saturday.
Damaging winds will be possible statewide, even well away from the center of the storm, and downed trees and powerlines are possible statewide on Friday and Saturday.
Widespread rainfall of 2 to 4 inches is also possible statewide, with 4 to 6 inches or more forecast in Southeast Georgia. Flash flooding, power outages, and other dangerous situations are possible, especially in Southeast Georgia.
Tropical storm conditions will be possible along the entire coastline of Georgia Wednesday through Saturday. A Tropical Storm Warning has been issued for Camden and Glynn Counties, and a Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for the remainder of the Georgia coast.
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