Tuesday – January 10, 2024 – 4:30 AM
After nearly five inches of rain was reported on Tuesday and some light snow showers and reports of some sleet on Tuesday night, we are waking up to temperatures in the mid to upper 30’s in the valley and hovering around freezing in the higher elevations of the area. As of 4:15 AM WZQZ News has not been notified of any school or business closings or delays. A Flood Warning for the Chattooga River has been extended by the National Weather Service.
Summerville Police responded to a call from West Washington Street last Saturday when a complainant called about someone damaging his yard. A responding officer spoke with the complainant who said that a red SUV was driving in an erratic and aggressive manner and had done a U-turn close to his residence. He said that the vehicle entered his yard and spun its tires, causing damage to the complainant’s lawn. The complainant was able to provide video from a home security camera to police, but police were unable to locate the vehicle in question.
Additional details have been released regarding the arrest of a Rome man on December 22 in connection with armed robberies in North Rome and West Rome.
As part of the transfer of all Wagner-Peyser activities to the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced the transition of Georgia’s Foreign Labor Certification (FLC) program to WorkSource Georgia, a program led by TCSG’s Office of Workforce Development. This collaboration involves the transfer of all program responsibilities, staff, and activities, effective January 1, 2024.
The Chattooga County Young Farmers will host their annual award banquet coming up this Saturday, January 13, 2024 at the Chattooga County Agricultural Centre at 7 PM. Those planning to attend should RSVP Chattooga Young Farmer Director Lauren Jarrett no later than noon tomorrow (Thursday). The cost of the steak meal is $15 for adults and $7 for children.
The Chattooga County Extension Office will be conducting a cooking class, beginning in the month of February, to learn how to manage diabetes and other chronic diseases through meal preparation. The Saturday classes will be held from Noon until 1:30 PM starting February 6th and going through March 5th. The classes are $15 each and you can register of find out more information by calling the Chattooga County Extension Office at 706-857-0744.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is coming up on Monday of next week and an ecumenical service is planned at Pond Spring AME Zion Church in Lyerly this coming Sunday. The service will begin at 3 PM with Rev. Jonathan Moore as the speaker. Dinner will be served before the service at 2 PM at the Maceo Wiggins Fellowship Hall. Then, on Monday, January 15th, there will be a “Day of Service” beginning at 11 AM at the Fairway Recreation Center on Senior Drive in Summerville. Refreshments will be served and the public is invited to come out and fellowship.
Georgia Northwestern Technical College is hosting an Open House for its Practical Nursing program to provide an opportunity to tour the facilities and to meet the instructors, staff and students.
Heavy rains moved through the area overnight and into the morning hours. Reports from around Chattooga County today indicated that anywhere from 3.5 to close to 5 inches of rain fell which led to flooding problems.
A Flood Warning for the Chattooga River expires at 5:10 PM Wednesday evening. The National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Georgia has issued a Wind Advisory until 7 PM. At 4 PM this afternoon the Chattooga River was at 13.87 feet -flood stage is 14 feet. This afternoon, the National Weather Service added a Special Weather Statement saying the higher elevations of Chattooga County could see some snow showers this evening. The winter precipitation would only be for areas above 1500 feet in elevation. Any accumulation will be less than an inch.
The effects of the rain are still being felt across the county this evening. Chattooga 911 says that Giles Road near Highway 337 in the Teloga Area remains closed due to flooding. Also on Neal Gap Road in the Teloga area, there is flooding that is making travel hazardous. Earlier this afternoon, officials removed the barriers on Peach Orchard Road in Menlo and reopened the road for traffic. County public works crews were working on Blowing Springs Road in Menlo to clean up flood debris in the road this afternoon.
Throughout the day, multiple roads and city streets had standing water, but Trion Mayor Lanny Thomas says that recent work by the Town of Trion in the Park Avenue area helped alleviate the flooding. The mayor told WZQZ News that the area appeared to be draining well during today’s heavy rains. There were some flooding issues in the Simmons Street area earlier this morning.
Georgia Power continues to work on some power outages in Chattooga County. The largest outage from earlier today was in the Holland Area, where around 62 customers were affected. Power was restored to that area this afternoon. An outage off Stoleman Road in Trion and another on Jenkins Gap are expected to be restored before midnight tonight. An outage near Wayside Baptist Church on Sloppy Floyd Lake Road still did not have an estimated restoration time as of 4:30 PM this afternoon.
North Georgia EMC worked multiple power outages in neighboring counties but did not report any power outages in Chattooga County throughout the day on Tuesday.
The strong storms last night and today stretched across Georgia and there was one fatality reported. Officials in Clayton County, Georgia reported that a person died when a tree fell on their car. Reports say that the victim was driving on Fayetteville Road when the tree fell across a lane of traffic and struck the car. That accident happened about 10 o’clock this morning.
Looking ahead at the forecast for the rest of the week, we could see another round of strong storms and heavy rain as we end the workweek on Friday, but rain amounts with that system are not expected to be as heavy as they were last night and today.
