The intersection of Riverside Drive and Heards Ferry Road is one of several traffic closures in Sandy Springs. Click to view larger map.
For East Cobb commuters who use Riverside Drive in Sandy Springs to get to Interstate 285 and beyond, you’ll have to find another route, at least for another day or two. That’s because of downed power lines and trees caused by Tropical Storm Irma.
This morning the City of Sandy Springs issued a notice saying that the intersection of Riverside Drive and Heards Ferry Road—the last major intersection south of I-285—remains closed, and that eight Georgia Power trucks will be needed to make repairs. Seven power poles were damaged in the storm at that juncture.
More details here about that closure and others in Sandy Springs that may affect your commute:
“Public Works is setting up variable message signs (VMS’s) in advance to alert drivers. We are alerting motorists at Johnson Ferry Rd/Riverside Dr and Johnson Ferry Rd/River Valley Rd that Riverside Dr is closed. We are also placing a VMS at the Riverside Dr and I-285 westbound roundabout alerting motorists that Riverside is closed. On Heards Ferry Rd, VMS’s will be placed at Raider Dr west of Riverside Dr and Mount Vernon Hwy east of Riverside Dr alerting motorists that Heards Ferry Rd is closed.”
Here’s the full link to what’s being distributed today by Sandy Springs, including a full list of road closures (and they had quite a few).
Crews work on a power line on Little Willeo Road near Johnson Ferry Road Tuesday afternoon. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
As work crews repaired power lines and cleared tree and other debris from roads Tuesday, East Cobb started to return to normal after riding out Tropical Storm Irma. Although partly cloudy skies and some rain are expected Wednesday, by the end of the week East Cobb weather will pick up where it left off before Monday’s storm.
Cobb County was spared the worst of the powerful storm’s damage that has crippled much of Georgia and other parts of metro Atlanta.
Cobb EMC reported no power outages as of late Tuesday afternoon, while several hundred Cobb customers of Georgia Power, mostly in South Cobb, were still without electricity.
Cobb officials said fewer than 100 trees were reported down throughout the county, and no major roads or streets were closed as a result of that or other damage.
An AT & T service truck flashing caution lights to passing motorists on Little Willeo Road on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
The Cobb County School District is the only major school system to return to classes Wednesday (East Cobb News post here), as sizable areas of metro Atlanta remain without power and have road hazards.
There are still plenty of minor branches and light debris scattered about East Cobb. In addition to electric crews, trucks from AT & T, Comcast and other utility companies were repairing lines, cables and other connection points that experienced lost service.
Irma carried sustained winds of more than 30 mph in many places around metro Atlanta, and gusts in some cases exceeding 50 mph, but those winds never got as strong in Cobb.
In nearby Sandy Springs, wind damage knocked down trees along many major roads, and a falling tree killed a man sleeping in his home. Motorists were advised not to travel to Sandy Springs from East Cobb via those affected areas (East Cobb News post here).
As Cobb students return to classes and business fully open on Wednesday, the rain will gradually dissipate and warmer temperatures will return. A 30 percent chance of showers is forecast for East Cobb, mainly in the afternoon, along with partly sunny skies. The high temperature should be around 75 (here’s the 7-day local forecast by the National Weather Service).
Thursday also is expected to be party sunny, with a high near 79, and Friday will be mostly sunny with temperatures in the low 80s.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m. today, the Cobb County School District announced that all classes and operations will return Wednesday to their normal schedules. Cobb schools resume classes after being closed Monday and Tuesday due to Tropical Storm Irma.
Some schools have had to reschedule their administering of the Iowa Basic Skills Test, which was to have started on Monday.
East Cobb Middle School has announced that the start of the IBST period will be Thursday; we’ll add more details about other East Cobb schools and their new testing periods as we get them. Please send an e-mail to editor@eastcobbnews.com if you have information to add here.
There’s no word yet on how the weather days on Monday or Tuesday may be made up; Cobb schools will be having their annual fall break from Sept. Sept. 25-29.
Cobb made it through Irma in much better shape than surrounding areas of metro Atlanta, some of which are still without electricity. Atlanta, DeKalb, Clayton, Fulton, Gwinnett and Henry are among the school districts that will will remain closed tomorrow.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, nearly half of all DeKalb school buildings still had no power, and in many parts of the metro area work crews were still clearing roads of trees, power line and other debris.
A northbound view of Johnson Ferry Road at Princeton Lakes Drive, at 11 a.m. Tuesday. (Georgia 511 photo)
Cobb County got plenty of rain and high winds and power outages on Monday as Tropical Storm Irma engulfed metro Atlanta and Georgia, but it could have been a lot worse.
Cobb schools and government remain closed today as the cleanup continues following the passage of the large storm, which has been downgraded to a tropical depression.
Two people died in metro Atlanta and more than 1.5 million customers in Georgia lost power during Irma, whose arrival prompted a statewide declaration of a state of emergency.
Some motorists are out on the roads and some businesses are open today, but local and state officials are warning of downed trees and power lines, debris and standing water.
Compared to other communities in metro Atlanta, Cobb dodged the worst of Irma. As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Georgia Power reported around 50 power outages in the county remaining (after several thousand initially), compared to several hundred in Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Clayton (here’s more).
In this Georgia Power outage map as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, the red colors indicate power outages between 5k-15k, orange 500-5k and green under 500.
Cobb EMC reported late Monday evening that fewer than 200 customers were without power, but hasn’t updated that figure this morning.
Many of the dozens of roads in Atlanta, Fulton County, DeKalb and elsewhere that closed Monday still hadn’t reopened as of late Tuesday morning. Cobb DOT as yet hasn’t identified any road closures but all major East Cobb thoroughfares are open; we’ll be getting out soon to take a look around.
Also hard-hit in Monday’s storm was Sandy Springs, adjacent to East Cobb, where a man died when a tree fell on his house while he was sleeping.
Several major roads in Sandy Springs remain closed this morning, and Cobb officials urged motorists who may be headed there to seek alternative routes.
Trees were reported down on Johnson Ferry Road in Sandy Springs, not far from the Chattahoochee River and the border with East Cobb. Here’s the advisory sent out by Cobb government this morning:
“The City of Sandy Springs is asking all motorists to stay off the roads on Tuesday. Georgia Power is not able to begin repairs on any down power lines until Tuesday morning.
“Sandy Springs has more than 30 roads impacted by down power lines. Of those, ten roads are major connections for residents throughout the metro area as part of their daily commute including: Spalding Drive, Riverside Drive, Johnson Ferry Road, Powers Ferry Road, Lake Forrest, Northside Drive, High Point Road and Glenridge Road.
“There is no timeline on when to expect roads to reopen. The City has closed its offices on Tuesday and encourages other businesses within the city to do the same.”
And as we noted here yesterday, the Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting scheduled for today, including the final public hearing and adoption of the fiscal year 2018 budget and passage of the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan has been postponed to Sept. 22.
How did you fare during the storm? Let us know! Send your news, including photos if you have them, to: editor@eastcobbnews.com.
We’ll post another update later today after we take a drive around the community.
A final public hearing and vote on the fiscal year 2018 Cobb County government budget was scheduled to take place on Tuesday but is being put on hold because of Tropical Storm Irma.
Cobb government offices are closed Monday and Tuesday (East Cobb News coverage here) due to severe weather.
Shortly after 12 p.m. on Monday, Cobb government announced that Tuesday’s regularly scheduled Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting was being rescheduled for Friday, Sept. 22, at 10 a.m.
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce.
At that meeting, commissioners will conduct a final public hearing on the budget and vote on final approval. Chairman Mike Boyce is recommending an $890 million spending package, with $405 million coming from the general fund, and no millage rate increases (East Cobb News coverage here and here).
The Sept. 22 meeting also will include a vote on the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan, a road map for suggested future land use and other long-term community growth and development strategies to be submitted to the Atlanta Regional Commission.
The commission’s agenda work session that was to have taken place Monday morning has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 3 p.m., following the commission’s monthly zoning hearing (which starts at 9 a.m.)
The commission’s work session also slated for today will take place instead on Monday, Sept. 25, at 1:30 p.m., and will feature additional budget presentations.
All of the board’s meetings will take place in the second floor boardroom of the Cobb BOC Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
The intersection of Johnson Ferry Road and Roswell Road, one of East Cobb’s busiest, shortly after 10 a.m. Monday. (Georgia 511 camera photos)
The typical morning rush hour was anything but on Monday, as East Cobb motorists heeded the warnings of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and other officials to stay off the roads as Tropical Storm Irma pushed into metro Atlanta.
With schools and government offices closed (previous East Cobb News coverage here), as well as a growing number of businesses, what normally would be traffic bottlenecks around East Cobb took on the appearance of lonely stretches of backwater roads.
For most of Monday morning, moderate to heavy rain from Irma engulfed the entire state of Georgia, although the center of the storm was passing through central Alabama.
(At 10:40 a.m. Monday, Cobb County government announced all offices and services, including courts and libraries, would be closed on Tuesday.)
The rain began overnight, along with winds around 15-20 mph, but they were expected to pick up substantially into Monday afternoon. Up to 5-7 inches of rain are being forecast by the National Weather Service throughout the metro area into Monday evening, and sustained winds of 35-40 mph and gusts possibly surpassing 60 mph.
Because of the low temperatures—in the mid-to-high 50s late Monday morning—the likelihood of tornado weather has been drastically reduced.
Powers Ferry Road at Windy Hill Road.
Deal declared a statewide state of emergency on Sunday afternoon, and tropical storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service on Saturday were to continue indefinitely.
Cobb, metro Atlanta and most of Georgia also remain under a flash flood watch until early Tuesday. The potential wind damage to trees and power lines, as well as debris and glass falling from buildings, has prompted some rare actions. MARTA bus and rail service has been suspended for Monday. As of 11 a.m. Monday the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport remains open, although hundreds of flights have already been cancelled.
Roswell Road at the 120 Loop.
After tearing through Florida on Sunday, Hurricane Irma entered south Georgia Sunday night as a Category 2 storm, and was expected to be downgraded to Category 1 and tropical storm status as it traveled north.
But the power of the storm has caused plenty of serious damage to Georgia already. State emergency officials and law enforcement agencies have been reporting big trees and power lines being down in roadways, and damage from buildings and other debris endangering motorists, pedestrians and emergency crews.
By mid-morning Monday, those reports included locations in the metro Atlanta area.
Hundreds of thousands of Georgians are already without electricity, and those numbers figure to skyrocket as the effects of Irma move through the state and into Alabama and western Tennessee by Monday evening.
Georgia citizens are being urged to stay where they are for the remainder of Monday. However, Georgia DOT is advising that “if you are out and about and come to a traffic light out—treat as four way stop.”
Terrell Mill Road at Paper Mill Road.
Cobb residents are being urged to acquaint themselves with safety information provided by the Cobb Emergency Management Agency. The basics include having flashlights, batteries, fully-charged cell phones, mobile devices and portable radios ready, along with procedures for moving to a safer part of a home or other building if necessary.
To prevent against being injured by falling trees, broken glass or other debris from high winds, move to a room without windows.
If you lose power, know the emergency phone number and procedures for contacting for your service provider.
Georgia Power is asking customers to report outages at its outage information link. (At 11:30 a.m., Georgia Power reported that about 330,000 customers statewide were without power, including around 85,000 in metro Atlanta, numbers that were “growing fast.”)
If you are a Cobb EMC member, report outages on its free app or call. 770-429-2100. Do not report outages to its social media channels.
