CITY RECOVERS FROM HURRICANE HERMINE

Posted on

THOMASVILLE, GA – September 2, 2016 – Hurricane Hermine barreled through North Florida and Southwest Georgia, leaving numerous downed trees and thousands without power. Locally, more than 7,700 City of Thomasville Utilities customers were without power, but Utilities crews monitored the situation throughout the evening and are still working to bring customers back online as quickly as possible.

“Presently, we still have 6,300 customers without electricity,” said Sheryl Sealy, Director of Marketing. “Our crews are working as quickly as possible to restore these customers, but widespread outages with numerous fallen trees means that it will take some time to reach full restoration.”

Thomas County’s Emergency Management Agency opened the Emergency Operations Center at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 1st. Representative from City and County agencies worked together throughout the night to both monitor the situation and dispatch crews where needed.

“For the City of Thomasville, we had representatives from Thomasville Fire Rescue, Thomasville Police Department, Public Works, Utilities and Public Information on staff in the EOC,” said Sealy. “Together, we worked to take calls from citizens and those in the field, route that information to the proper agency and keep the community informed.”

Calls began coming in around 11:20 p.m., with peak activity occurring between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. While the situation will improve throughout Friday, it will take time to restore services to all customers.

“In total, we had about 30 downed trees within the city of Thomasville, so it will take time to fully clear the debris and bring our customers back online,” said Sealy.

Citizens are urged to use caution when encountering barricades for closed or partially closed streets and roadways and to use alternate routes where roads are blocked. Presently, about 14 City streets and roadways remain closed or partially closed, including:

  • Remington Ave., from Kern St. to Hansell St.
  • Millpond Rd. and Pinetree Blvd.
  • Tuxedo Dr. and Monticello Rd.
  • Mitchell St., from Monroe St. to Washington St.
  • S. Martin Luther King Dr.
  • Edgewood Dr. and North Mitchell St.
  • Washington St., from Ridgecrest and Myrtle
  • Parnell St. and College Dr.
  • Young St. and Cherry St.
  • Meadow St. and Cassidy Rd.
  • Felix St. and Plain St.
  • Hopkins St./Webster/Fletcher St.

Citizens should continue to monitor weather situations throughout the weekend. “We may still have some trailing bands of rain passing through our area into Friday, with 20-30 mph winds possible through early afternoon,” said Sealy. “In addition, flash flooding is still a concern for the area.”


Keywords

News