Tropical Storm Irma pounds Southeast, kills 2 in Ga, 1 in S.C.

ATLANTA — Irma weakened to a still-deadly tropical storm as it swirled beyond Florida Monday, killing at least two people in Georgia, flooding the coast, sending trees crashing onto homes and forcing the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta to cancel hundreds of flights.

The former hurricane remained an immense, 415mile wide storm as its center moved on from Florida on Monday afternoon, giving its still-formidable gusts and drenching rains a far reach.

Some 540,000 people were ordered to evacuate days earlier from Savannah and the rest of Georgia’s coast. Irma sent 4 feet of ocean water into downtown Charleston, South Carolina, as the storm’s center passed 250 miles away. In Atlanta, people nervously watched towering oak trees as the city, 250 miles inland, experienced its first tropical storm warning.

The body of a 62-year-old man who climbed a ladder behind his home was found under debris on the roof of his shed in southwest Georgia, where winds topped 40 mph, Worth County sheriff ’s spokeswoman Kannetha Clem said. His wife had called 911 saying he’d had a heart attack.

“He was lodged between two beams and had a little bit of debris on top of him,” Clem said. “He was on the roof at the height of the storm.”

Another man, in his 50s, was killed just outside Atlanta when a tree fell on his house, Sandy Springs police Sgt. Sam Worsham said.

And still another, Charles Saxon, 57, became South Carolina’s first recorded death when he was struck by a tree limb while clearing debris outside his home in Calhoun Falls amid wind gusts of about 40 mph, according to a statement from Abbeville County Coroner Ronnie Ashley.

Communities along Georgia’s coast were swamped by storm surge and rainfall arriving at high tide Monday afternoon. On Tybee Island east of Savannah, Holland Zellers was grabbing a kayak to reach his mother in a home near the beach.

“In the street right now, the water is knee-to-waist deep,” Zellers said.

Tybee Island City Manager Shawn Gillen said waters were receding quickly, but many of the 3,000 residents’ homes were flooded.

The tidal surge sent damaged boats rushing more than three blocks onto downtown streets in St. Marys, just north of the Georgia-Florida state line, St. Marys Police Lt. Shannon Brock said.

Downtown Atlanta hotels remained full of evacuees. Many milled about the CNN Center, escaping crowded hotel rooms in search of open restaurants. Many were glued to storm coverage on the atrium’s big screen.

Forecast

The tropical storm warning applied to almost all of Georgia, parts of South Carolina and most of eastern Alabama. Meteorologist Keith Stellman said Atlanta’s airport recorded sustained winds of 45 mph with gusts up to 64 mph. The National Weather Service said flooding rains were a major concern Monday, with 8 to 15 inches of rainfall predicted in southeast Georgia. Alabama Emergency Management Agency meteorologist Jim Stefcovich said strong winds could linger until 2 a.m. today.

Airlines

About 800 flights had been canceled at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which remained operational Monday, even as many planes turned corners of the tarmac into a parking lot..

Power

More than 1.2 million Georgia Power and EMC customers mostly in coastal and south Georgia were without power. Alabama Power reported 45,000 outages. Utilities said repairs could take several days.