Sandy Springs Prepared To House Hurricane Irma Evacuees

SANDY SPRINGS, GA -- The city of Sandy Springs continues to watch Hurricane Irma's move toward metro Atlanta, and is gearing up to house any evacuees fleeing the Category 4 storm as necessary. City spokesperson Sharon Kraun said the city is "prepared" to open its Hammond Park gym at 705 Hammond Drive as a shelter.

"We've moved cots and have staff on hand to man should we need to open," she added.

If this need becomes a reality, volunteers from Sandy Springs' Fire Corps will staff the gym. Volunteers with the organization as well as the Citizens On Patrol and Ham Radio operators are also ready to help the city and its residents pull through the storm.

Sandy Springs has already laid out plans on how it will respond to whatever Irma decides to dump on the Peach State. All city support departments -- public safety, public works, communications, finance, IT, facilities and community development -- are participating in daily briefings to monitor conditions.

It's also mobilizing resources such as tree crews, barricades, fuel and other essential equipment needed for crews to respond to problem areas. The city's WebEOC is open, which provides a central online location for plan documents, updates and all reported incidents during the emergency operation period (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app).

City staffers are also talking to neighborhoods that are in 100- or 500-year flood plain areas to make sure they are aware of the potential of flooding, and crews have already inspected known trouble areas related to heavy rain. Of course, the city is working with Georgia Power and other utility partners on storm-related response plans.

If you like to have information at your fingertips, the city has created a website specifically focused on Irma, which highlights how you can prepare for the storm. Of course, residents are highly encouraged to sign up for Sandy Springs Alerts to receive emergency notifications from the city and keep track of developments by following Sandy Springs' Facebook and Twitter social media accounts.

According to the National Weather Service's noon briefing, the Category 4 hurricane is pounding Cuba's north coast and is expected to regain strength as it churns towards South Florida and the Keys. Irma is currently packing sustained winds of 125 mph and is moving west at 9 miles an hour. The current track shows it's shifted a little more to the west, meaning that the current forecast track puts the center point of the path more along the panhandle side of Florida early Sunday morning into Georgia where it is expected to continue curving west.

NWS states most of Georgia will begin seeing tropical storm-force winds on Monday, with sustained winds at 25-40 miles an hour and higher gusts as the bands push through.

The state is expected to get inches of rain and experience isolating flooding. Additionally, the risk of tornadic activity will be along and to the east of the bands. NWS notes that any tornadoes that develop will be "fast moving and rain wrapped, making them hard to see.

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Image via National Weather Service