Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said Monday afternoon that Tropical Storm Irma had done its worst and would likely stop soaking her city by evening.
"It looks like a lot of this is going to dissipate," she said at a 3 p.m. news conference. "But we're still looking at high wind gusts and high sustained winds."
The fiercest wind is expected over a three-hour period starting at 8 p.m., at a steady 20 m.p.h., with gusts twice that speed. Tornadoes were a diminishing threat.
About 30,000 customers were without power in the area, which is southwest of Atlanta on the Alabama line. Other than branches falling on roofs, though, there was no serious damage to buildings reported.
There were some vehicle accidents, but no loss of life. Police Chief Ricky Boren asked that people stay off the roads if possible.
Jonathan Baker, a Columbus native who had moved to Clearwater, Fla., evacuated back to Columbus ahead of the hurricane last week. He quickly landed a job at a downtown restaurant, Samurai, and was working through the storm durinig the Monday lunch. He was unimpressed with what he saw through the windows, even though a limb on a small tree had cracked and fallen on his new boss’s brand new car.
"This storm is nothing," Baker said, adding that his grandparents' house, where he is staying with his wife and 17-month-old son, is made of brick and is up on a hill.
"We're fine here."
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