Cobb County is urging residents to prepare for potentially dangerous weather and an influx of evacuees as Hurricane Irma heads toward Georgia.
Cobb's emergency management agency has a website with links on travel, emergency declarations and other information. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will be providing live updates on the historic storm.
Residents are encouraged to know their flood risk, create an emergency kit for their home and car, and develop a family plan for evacuation and communication in case of outages.
“It doesn’t do any good to have a plan to solve a problem if you aren’t ready to implement it,” Cassie Mazloom, director of the Cobb County EMA, said in a statement. “You need to set aside resources and make certain everyone in your family knows what to do when the time comes.”
FEMA and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources have updated flood maps for Cobb since the devastating floods of 2009, but even residents outside the flood zone should consider buying flood insurance, experts say. Check your flood risk here.
Extreme weather events like hurricanes are expected to become more powerful as the oceans warm, Marshall Shepherd, the director of Atmospheric Studies at the University of Georgia, previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Engineers assume that the rainstorms of 2017 would look like the rainstorms of 1970, and that's just not the case," Shepherd said. "We certainly have to be prepared and develop an infrastructure that can withstand what I call 21st century rainstorms."
Cobb County is also encouraging residents to attend free Community Emergency Response Team classes offered throughout September.
In the East Cobb County Area, these classes will be offered three consecutive Saturdays: Sept. 9, 16 and 23 at St. Ann's Catholic Church 4905 Roswell Rd, Marietta. Contact Linda Walsh at 770-552-6400 ext. 6019 or LwalshRN@st-ann.org for more information and registration.
In the Kennesaw Area, the classes will be offered Sept. 9, Sept. 23 and Oct. 7 at the Ben Roberston Community Center, 2753 Watts Drive, Kennesaw. Email: cok.cert.training@gmail.com.
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