The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ASSESSING IRMA’S WRATH
Schools reopening across metro Atlanta; more get power back.
Not all of metro Atlanta will have electricity today, and not all children will be back in school. But slowly, the cleanup continues from Tropical Storm Irma, which ripped through the area with powerful winds that brought down trees and power lines.
More than 48 hours after Irma ripped through Georgia, about 480,000 Georgia homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday afternoon, down from about 1.5 million immediately after Monday’s storm. Schools were also affected by power outages, which forced DeKalb County to cancel classes today for the fourth day in a row.
“Safety is key,” DeKalb Superintendent Steve Green said in a news release. “Right now, there are several challenges that
present a potential threat to our students such as buildings and homes without power, and fallen power lines and trees. We remain hopeful to reopen our schools and offices soon, but not at the expense of our students and staff.”
Less than 150,000 Georgia Power customers were in the dark Wednesday afternoon, according to the Atlanta utility’s state-wide outage map. About 128,000 of those were in the metro Atlanta counties of Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Clayton and Cobb.
Ge o rgia Power said Wednesday that it expects to restore power to 95 per- cent of customers by Sunday night.
The utility said it has com- pleted a “full-scale damage assessment” that allowed it to come up with the estimate for restoring service.
In Gwinnett County, the widespread power outages and road closures were beginning to dwindle Wednesday, much to the relief of county residents.
By 8 a.m., about 17,500 Gwinnett County customers of Georgia Power or the Walton, Jackson and Sawnee EMCs were without power. That’s less than half of the Gwinnettians who were powerless Tuesday after- noon, and a far cry from the 100,000-plus residents who didn’t have electricity in Irma’s more immediate aftermath.
Though the metro area was largely spared from the destruction seen in South Georgia and Florida, clearing highways and roads remained a top priority for transportation crews.
GDOT crews were still working Wednesday after- noon to clear trees block- ing highways at 72 locations around the state.
Spokeswoman Natalie Dale said most of the incidents are in GDOT’s District 3, which encompasses west central Georgia. She said that part of the state was hit particularly hard by Irma.
In metro Atlanta, Dale said any remaining blocked high- ways likely involve downed power lines. GDOT is working with Georgia Power to clear such incidents, but the utility has its hands full trying to restore power to hundreds of thousands of people.
Gov. Nathan Deal said there’s still no cost estimate for the storm’s damage, but assessment teams are in the field working to come up with an initial tally.
In an interview Wednesday on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Political Rewind,” he said he hoped that par- tisanship takes a “very distant second seat” as federal lawmakers weigh aid pack- ages to Georgia and Florida.
“This is a time to deal with the crisis, to try to restore a state’s economy and try to restore the lives of individuals,” said Deal. “We do not ask for things that we do not need. And I believe that is true for the most of these kinds of emergencies. We don’t over-ask. And if you don’t over-ask, people pay a lot more attention when you do ask.”
Though classes resumed Wednesday for some metro school systems — including
Cobb and Cherokee — about half of metro area students got a third day off.
Gwinnett County Public Schools will reopen today after three straight days of canceled classes.
The district announced via social media that it anticipates all of its schools will resume “normal schedules” today.
Fulton County will also resume classes today after power was restored to all school buildings.
Power had returned to all but four school buildings operated by Atlanta Public Schools, Superintendent Meria Carstarphen announced. The system will notify parents if those schools will be open today.
As the grueling task of cleaning up after Mother Nature continued, there was one bright spot: the forecast.
Partly cloudy skies with a high temperature of 80 degrees are expected today, according to Channel 2 Action News Chief Meteorologist Glenn Burns.