AUGUSTA - Georgia's so-called Garden City is preparing to be Ice City by morning, with thousands of homes losing power and felled trees shutting down roadways.
A city known for lush golf links and sultry summers has found itself in the bull’s-eye of a massive winter storm, raising the specter of another Georgia city being laid on its back by snow and ice. Social media was abuzz that The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore, known for reporting live from severe weather, is actually in Augusta.
“This is really bad,” said Pam Tucker, head of the Emergency Management Agency for suburban Columbia County. “We’re really bracing for the worst. This is probably the worst ice storm we’ve ever had in this area.
But Tucker and other public safety officials are determined to handle this disaster better - far better - than their counterparts did in metro Atlanta two weeks ago with “Snowjam 2014.” Augusta expects something more like Atlanta’s “Snowpocalypse” of 2011, when residents woke up to find roads and driveways as slick as skating rinks.
Sleet and snow are expected fall during the early morning hours, leaving a sheet of ice at least an inch thick. Wind gusts could reach up to 20 miles per hour, snapping brittle trees and branches and ripping down power lines.
“Just going on the reports that we’re getting, a half-inch is going to have a pretty significant impact on us,” said Augusta Fire Department Special Operations Chief Byron Taylor. “When tree limbs and things like that start breaking and fall across power lines, that just compounds the problem.”
As night came Tuesday, Georgia Power had turned the parking lot of Regency Mall, a defunct shopping mall south of downtown Augusta, into a disaster command center with a fleet of hundreds of utility trucks.The fleet grew steadily as more trucks owned by private contractors poured into the city in convoys.
More than 1,000 emergency workers, a mix of contractors and utility employees, manned the command center which will cover eastern Georgia.
Meanwhile, Augusta and Columbia County planned to hit major roads with salt, sand and gravel late Tuesday. Snow plows, road scrapers and chainsaw crews were on standby.
Tucker said minimizing the damage depends largely on keeping people inside Wednesday. She sent that message out through the local media, as well as by email and Facebook. She said she also has technology to send messages directly to cell phones.
“Once it starts and they lose power, they’re probably going to be without information for a few days, maybe longer,” Tucker said.
The Kroger near the Augusta National Golf Club was packed with last-minute stockpilers who loaded bags into their trunks in the cold rain. Lines stretched back into the aisles and the parking lot was jammed with cars.
Teresa Stevens, who lives in the National Hills subdivision nearby, said she didn’t realize the enormity of the storm heading her way in time to make a grocery run. The private school pre-K teacher said she didn’t watch the local news while she was at work.
Fortunately, she stocked up on groceries Sunday, and she has a gas generator in her basement.
“We’ve got batteries. We’ve got flashlights. We’ve got food in the house,” Stevens said. “The fireplace is a great alternative in a power outage.”
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