ATLANTA — The man who directs Georgia’s emergency response says starting early Friday, millions of Georgians could be in for a major winter storm and that ice could be a big problem.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne spoke exclusively Wednesday with Chris Stallings, the director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.
He reiterated what Severe Weather Team 2 Chief Meteorologist Brad Nitz has reported, North Georgia is going to be impacted by snow, ice and freezing rain.
“Some of it will be just all freezing rain, a lot of it will be snow and then a good combination of that over about a 12- to 14-hour period,” Stallings said. “The reason that we’re so concerned about the ice is that even though it might fall as snow, warm pockets of air could cause that snow to melt before it reaches the ground and then it will overact with those cold temps on the ground, and it’ll cause it to freeze. All our bridges and overpasses we fully anticipate those freezing.”
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Stallings said GEMA’s state operations center – the nerve center of the state’s emergency response – is already active in support of events surrounding former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
“Our role in that has been primarily wrap-around services, so down in Plains we’ve organized all the state’s response,” Stallings said.
But he said soon the state operations center will move to a winter storm focus.
They anticipate that driving could become treacherous because the weather in recent days has already made roads cold and we might be in for a major ice event.
“This will be about a 36- to 42-hour event. We’re going to put down a lot of brine. GDOT and their team are going to start early with us at the state. At GDOT, our primary focus is our state routes and our interstates. Your local streets will probably see blockage on them, ice on them until nature takes its course,” Stallings said.
One of the biggest things GEMA says Georgians can do in the affected areas for winter weather— stay off the roads.
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