Douglas County Prepping For Hurricane Irma

DOUGLASVILLE, GA — North Georgia may not feel the worst of Hurricane Irma, but officials in Douglas County are gearing up for when the remains of the deadly storm strike the area. Government and law enforcement officials in Douglas County are receiving updates from the National Weather Service and state and federal emergency management agencies, county spokesman Wes Tallon said Friday morning.

Tallon said that, as of Friday morning, the storm — currently sitting between Cuba and the Bahamas and expected to make landfall in Florida early Saturday — is expected to impact Douglas County beginning Saturday night. By then, the area could see winds up to 50 m.p.h. and get as much as three inches of rain, Tallon said.

Analysis: Irma's 'Cone Of Uncertainty' Is Massive

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He was quick to note that, due to the unpredictable nature of hurricanes, that forecast changes almost hourly. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

In Douglas County, Rideshare has suspended van pool service for Monday and Tuesday, Tallon said. More county-specific information was expected Friday after a briefing scheduled for noon.

Hurricane Irma jogged further westward overnight and weakened slightly, offering a glimmer of hope to residents of coastal Georgia even as an estimated half-million people began evacuating the area.

But the deadly storm, which remained a dangerous Category 4 as it churned between Cuba and the Bahamas Friday morning, still had Georgia in its sights and, regardless of where it eventually makes landfall in the continental U.S., will almost certainly roll into the Peach State by weekend's end.

Still packing maximum sustained winds of 150 m.p.h., Irma was about 80 miles northeast of the Cuban coast at 8 a.m. Friday and sitting 450 miles southeast of Miami. It was moving west-northwest at 16 m.p.h.

Other Federal, State, and Local Resources for Storm Updates

• National Weather Service Atlanta on Twitter- @NWSAtlanta
• Georgia Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency-http://www.gema.ga.gov/
• Georgia EM&HS on Twitter- @GeorgiaEMA
• Cherokee County Emergency Management Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/CherokeeEMA/

Disaster Relief Organizations

• The American Red Cross- http://www.redcross.org/
• Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief- https://missiongeorgia.org/georgia-disaster-relief/
• The Salvation Army- https://disaster.salvationarmyusa.org/
• Samaritan’s Purse- https://www.samaritanspurse.org/

Photos courtesy National Hurricane Center