Irma now aimed toward NW Ga.
The “beaten path” could well include Rome.
Projections for the path of Hurricane Irma now have the storm wandering through the Coosa Valley overnight Monday into Tuesday. As it relates to Irma, Romans might wish they were, in fact, off the ‘beaten path.’
City arborist Terry Paige has his fingers crossed, is carrying a rabbit’s foot and is hunting four-leaf clovers in the hope that whatever final path the storm takes, Rome ends up on the west side of the action.
Meteorologists say the northeast quadrant of a hurricane is typically the worst place to be because the storm is pushing the highest winds, rain and threat of tornados on that side of the eye.
Paige said Irma has the potential to be a repeat of Hurricane Opal, which dumped more than 10 inches of rain on Rome on Oct. 4-5, 1995.
Rome and Floyd County Emergency Management Agency Director Tim Herrington said nowhere near that kind of rainfall is expected, at least not at this time. “All of that could change,” Herrington said after a noon briefing with National Weather Service personnel Friday. “We’re looking for three to five inches,” Herrington said.
“I worked all night (during Opal). I was on call the night Opal hit,” Paige remembers. “There were transformers blowing all over town, lighting the sky up.”
“A moderate 30 mile-per-hour wind usually doesn’t create a lot of damage but if you get 40 and above, some of the bad trees will start to come down. With sustained winds of 50 or better and we’re going to have a lot of damage,” Paige said. “A lot of our trees are not in the best of shape right now anyway after the drought stress from last summer.”
A report in the Rome News-Tribune on Oct. 5, 1995 indicates wind gusts peaked around 60 mph during Opal as it raced through Rome and Floyd County. The same edition indicated that water from Little Cedar Creek was about two feet deep across the highway near the square in downtown Cave Spring.
Herrington is on the same page with Paige, saying that wind damage and power outages are likely to be the biggest problem. “We could see some flash flooding in the usual areas,” Herrington said.
David Akins, who grew up in Rome as a youngster, has returned from The Villages, Florida, near Ocala. His daughter drove in from St. Petersburg and his son came from the Jacksonville area to ride out Irma in Rome. “This is our backup plan and the back-up plan isn’t looking so good right now,” Akins said.
Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft said the utility has been monitoring the storm and the changing path has different implications for the power company. “We’re refining our plans, continuing the discussions we’ve had all week with the mutual assistance networks around the country and our sister companies within Southern Co.,” Kraft said.
Kraft explained people need to be very careful when inspecting damage related to trees being down. “You could have a live line down there among the debris,” Kraft said. He also urged people who plan to have portable power generators to make sure those generators are in well ventilated areas.
Lisa Smith, director of the Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau, said most of the hoteliers in Rome are permitting pets to come with guests who have come to Rome to ride out the storm. One owner of multiple properties in Rome is even making plans to send his guests back to Florida with a case of water each.
Smith said people still coming to Rome need to check with the local hotels, not online services or corporate reservation systems, because the situation has been very fluid over the last 24 to 48 hours.
Rome City Schools officials will be monitoring weather forecasts before making a decision Sunday on whether school will be in session Monday, states a news release from the system.
On Friday, the school system announced that it is canceling all field trips and off-campus evening activities scheduled for Monday. A final decision on whether or not cancellations
will occur for all on-campus and afterschool activities is expected to come Sunday, the release continues. This includes a decision on the ASPIRE afterschool program.
Floyd County Schools officials, as of Friday, had not made any cancellations for the school day or activities on Monday, according to a statement.
“We will continue to closely monitor and work with emergency management over the weekend to make a decision as soon as we possibly and practically can,” the statement reads.
Spokeswomen for St. Mary’s Catholic School and Unity Christian School said they are likely to follow what the city and county school systems do.
Any schedule changes for Darlington School will be released by 6 a.m. Monday, in accordance with their inclement weather policy, said Tannika Wester, a school spokeswoman.
RN-T Staff Writer Spencer Lahr contributed to this report.