ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp is urging Georgians in the path of Tropical Storm Debby to stay sheltering in place as state officials and crews assess the damage.
The storm made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in Florida before it moved into south Georgia as a tropical storm, killing at least one person in Moultrie and four people in Florida.
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Kemp and Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency Director Chris Stallings gave an update Tuesday morning from GEMA headquarters.
Kemp authorized the GEMA director to open the state operation center to monitor Debby’s progress.
“Unfortunately I don’t think this storm is done with us yet,” Kemp said.
The main impacts Georgia is seeing are 50-70 miles inland from Savannah. With a break from the heavy rain on Tuesday, Georgia emergency officials are getting resources on the ground, but urge patience.
“Do not let this storm lull you to sleep, as a lot of affected areas right now are not experiencing rain and high winds, but both models are showing that rain will come back, potentially in the worst case scenario, in a big way,” Kemp said. “Give us time to clear roads, get power crews in, help with any emergency efforts that we need to do in the local communities.”
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Officials said another eight inches of rain could fall through the end of the week if Debby stalls and moves back over Georgia.
Kemp authorized up to 2,000 National Guard members at the ready with 300 already posted to forward positions.
“We’re really focusing on additional manpower, got lots of high-wheeled vehicles and pretty robust logistics capability,” Maj. Gen. Richard D. Wilson said.
The ground is saturated, so there’s fear of more fallen trees, but the main concern is still flash flooding.
“We stand ready and are going to continue to monitor so we’re not going to let this little bit of downtime make us think that we’re out of the woods yet,” Stallings said. “So there’s still a lot of water to come. We do have a lot of resources out there, and we are ready to handle whatever’s coming with that.”
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