Updated: More cancellations/closures in the East Cobb area.
Original post:
Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday that weekend extracurricular events have been cancelled or postponed due to approaching Winter Storm Fern.
During a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale said that a decision on whether to cancel classes and activities on Monday will be made by no later than mid-afternoon Sunday.
Ragsdale said communications have gone out to Cobb school district parties that had sporting events and other activities scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
The cancelled events this weekend have been rescheduled, the district said in a statement, and “over the weekend, staff will continue preparing our schools for severe weather and will be in constant communication with the state, county offices, neighboring school districts, and weather experts.”
Cobb County was added to a winter storm watch earlier Thursday that begins at 1 a.m. Saturday and continues through 10 a.m. Monday.
That forecast includes a strong chance of ice accumulations throughout North and Central Georgia, with as much as a half-inch in some places.
The latest prediction for Cobb and metro Atlanta is as much as a quarter-inch of ice.
Gov. Brian Kemp has declared a state of emergency through Thursday to mobilize crews to begin preparations for road closures and power outages.
A detailed forecast is still emerging, and Ragsdale said that “nobody really knows what we don’t know.”
The major storm is expected to leave what forecasters are calling “crippling” amounts of ice through the lower Midwest and into the Mid-Atlantic region.
Georgia and Alabama are at the Southern edige of storm, which will bring snow and high winds through the weekend.
The chance of precipitation is near 100 percent Saturday evening and Sunday, and 80 percent into Monday morning, with temperatures dropping into the high teens for the return to school.
Cobb DOT will brief the public Friday with further details about its plans to address road conditions.
“Hopefully we won’t have to make any call,” Ragsdale said about the possibility of delaying or cancelling classes and activities on Monday.
The Cobb school district is updating its weather information at this link.
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