Atlanta police said they will have most downtown streets open for the Monday afternoon rush hour and the rest of the workweek, despite continuing tornado cleanup and repair work.

"Throughout the next few days, in order to assist clean-up efforts, police may close some streets for short periods of time, but most will remain open to vehicular traffic," the city said in a 3 p.m. traffic update.

Johnny Crawford/AJC (ENLARGE)

Boards cover blown-out windows in the Georgia Pacific and Equitable buildings in downtown Atlanta on Sunday. Most downtown offices say they will be open Monday.

Jessica McGowan/AJC (ENLARGE)

Pastor Dexter Johnson stands in front Mount Gilead Missionary Church in Vine City on Sunday. The church was damaged by the tornado that swept through Atlanta on Friday night.

STORM AFTERMATH • IRS giving storm victims more time to file • Officials believe man killed in tornado was seeking shelter • Federal aid available in Fulton PHOTOS: • One month after tornado • Oakland Cemetery • NW Georgia devastation • Scene downtown 3 days after • East Atlanta recovers • Cabbagetown • Vine City | Rome • Aerial view of damage • Downtown 1 | 2 • Readers' photos 1 | 2 | 3 MORE: • Woman killed by tornado mourned • Landmarks damaged | Map VIDEOS: • On YouTube • Aerials show downtown devastation • Atlantans survey damage • Storm hits MORE ALERTS: • Get AJC breaking news & traffic alerts on your mobile device.

But only sections of two downtown streets will be completely off-limits for the next few days, the city said.

They are: Marietta Street NW between Andrew Young International Blvd. and Centennial Olympic Park Dr. NW (in front of CNN Center); and Andrew Young International between Peachtree Street and Spring Street.

"These two closures may be in effect for a few more days," the city said.

Certain streets in Cabbagetown and East Atlanta also will remain closed.

While the update suggested that motorists will face fewer closures Tuesday morning, the city also warned that many traffic lights damaged by Friday night's twister remain "non-functional."

Officers "will be staffing many of the busier intersections during rush-hour this afternoon and again tomorrow morning. Motorists are asked to pay careful attention to the direction of the officers. Where there is no officer, and lights are not functioning, motorists are to treat the intersection as a four-way stop, giving right-of-way to the right," the city said.

The city also said two stretches of sidewalks will be closed to pedestrian traffic until further notice: Spring Street between Marietta and Walton; and Spring Street between Carnegie and Andrew Young International Blvd.

At an earlier press conference Monday, officials warned some disruption will continue despite the quickening pace of cleanup and repair.

"It will be a challenge for days to come," Atlanta deputy police Chief Alan Dreher said at the midday news conference. Dreher urged motorists to check the city's Web site or the police department Web site to learn which streets are closed to traffic. Those Web sites are List of streets and www.atlantapd.org.

On Monday morning the city blocked access to about two dozen streets downtown as crews repaired broken traffic signals, removed debris and checked buildings for structural damage.

The morning rush hour saw blockages around the CNN Center area, on Spring Street coming into downtown from the south and at the Courtland Street exit off I-75, among other places.

But officials predicted a smoother afternoon rush hour.

Atlanta police spokeswoman Judy Pal said city workers are "getting a number more [traffic] lights fixed today; that should help ease things this afternoon."

The blockages were necessary to enable debris cleanup and repair work after a weekend that saw the first-ever tornado hit downtown Atlanta on Friday night, followed by a wave of trailing storms on Saturday. The twister littered the central city with debris from damaged buildings, knocked out more than 100 traffic lights and left the skyline pockmarked with broken windows.

Still, motorists seemed to handle the traffic calmly. No horns blared, and the main sounds heard were the shrill tweet of police whistles and a police helicopter circling over downtown.

Police also urged pedestrians to be cautious around damage zones because of the continued risk of falling debris. Atlanta Fire-Rescue cited 11 downtown buildings that could still produce falling debris.

"It's a zone that has a lot of safety issues," Pal said.

The twister cut a swath from Vine City and the Georgia World Congress Center east across the downtown connector to Cabbagetown. Atlanta was spared any fatalities, but a larger tornado on Saturday killed two people in northwest Georgia.

Gov. Sonny Perdue toured the damage zone by helicopter on Sunday and then walked through the battered World Congress Center. Shards of glass crunched under the governor's boots as workers used dry vacuums to suck up pools of water, and sunlight danced through the ceiling in building B. Officials at the center scrubbed this week's events, which included a major volleyball-players convention.

Elsewhere in the damage zone:

-- CNN Center and its food court are open, and CNN tours are being conducted as usual. But 467 rooms in the South Tower of the Omni Hotel will be closed for two weeks, tourism officials said.

-- The Georgia Aquarium and World of Coke attractions also are open, despite damage to the adjacent Centennial Olympic Park.

-- Despite hundreds of blown-out windows, the Equitable Building, SunTrust Tower, Georgia-Pacific building and 191 Peachtree office buildings are all open. Some tenants might relocate temporarily or shift workers, however.

At Monday's press conference, city officials said they are working with officials from Fulton County and the state on a damage assessment that may help Atlanta get federal funds to assist in the recovery. The threshold to receive federal assistance is at least $11 million in uninsured damage, said Rocky Moore, director of the Atlanta Fulton County Emergency Management Agency.

State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has given an initial damage estimate of at least $150 million, but it's not clear how much was to uninsured properties. Oxendine said most of his estimate comes from damage to the Georgia World Congress Center.

Most of the residential damage occurred in Cabbagetown and Vine City.

More than 100 homes in Vine City were damaged, said Ivory Lee Young Jr., the city councilman who represents the area. Young said many of the homeowners are elderly and some don't have insurance.

"We've got a tough road ahead of us to make [the homeowners] whole," he said.

The city's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department said the Historic Oakland Cemetery and several other city facilities were damaged. The department estimates the damage at about $5.6 million. City Public Works officials say it will cost about $250,000 to repair broken traffic lights and signals.

Dreher confirmed police are aware of a couple of incidents of looting in neighborhoods damaged by the tornado. Dreher said extra police officers are patrolling those neighborhoods.

Katy Pando, a spokeswoman for the World Congress Center, said officials are trying to repair damage at the Georgia Dome in preparation for Easter Sunday services for New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.

They expect to have an assessment of when and what parts of Congress Center can open some time today.

"This resource will be restored as quickly as possible," Perdue told reporters, although he said he was not prepared to put a dollar figure on the cost.

— Staff writers David Markiewicz, Ernie Suggs and Leon Stafford contributed to this report.