Relieved Ga. coast dodges storm's fury

State suffers minimal damage as Dorian heads to the Carolinas.

Residents of coastal Georgia were breathing easier on Thursday after Hurricane Dorian passed through leaving the coast largely unscathed. The devastation that Dorian brought to the Bahamas

and severe weather it was taking to the Carolinas never showed in Georgia.

The state was spared this time. But with hurricane season in full swing, forecasters warn we’re not out of the woods yet.

As Georgia Power worked to

his strategy just weeks after he was sworn in. That’s when he ordered some state employees to stay home as wintry weather menaced Atlanta just before it hosted the Super Bowl.

That guarded strategy mirrors the approach that then

‘In this game, you do not want to be slow to the preparations or slow to the response.’

Gov. Brian Kemp

Gov. Nathan Deal took in the final years of his two terms in office, after poor communication and slow government response to the paralyzing 2014 ice storm became a humiliating disaster for the state.

That triggered a round of soul-searching — and a leadership shake-up — that paved the way for a revamped emergency response policy, promises of improved coordination and more money to buy road-clearing equipment.

It also gave rise to a philosophy that Kemp seems to have also embraced: It’s easier to roll back an overreaction to weather than to look caught off guard by a scaled-down response — even if it infuriates coastal residents who have been ordered to evacuate three times since 2016.

Kemp said he’s struggled with the tension, too, but would rather err on the side of caution.

“In thi s game, you do not want to be slow to the preparations or slow to the re sponse. I t h i n k we ’ ve learned that before,” he said Wednesday, adding that his “battle-tested” administration has learned from a spate of severe weather emergencies.

“They’ve been through way too much of this, but we’ve got to hunker down and chop some wood and get through one more,” he added. “And that’s just the reality of what we’re in.”

HYOSUB SHIN / HYOSUB.SHIN@AJC.COM Tybee Island Mayor Jason Buelterman walks on a sand dune the city built in preparation for Hurricane Dorian, which spared the coastal Georgia city from serious damage.