(Franklin, GA) — The National Weather Service at 11:00 AM this morning has issued a Tropical Storm Warning for much of North Georgia including Heard County.
As a result of the impending weather system, Heard County Schools will be closed on Thursday.
Heard County Superintendent Rodney Kay released the following statement Wednesday afternoon:
We are currently under a Tropical Storm Warning in Heard County. I wanted to let everyone know due to the possibility of high sustained winds and even higher wind gusts which will likely lead to downed trees and powerlines; we have decided to cancel school for tomorrow, October 29th. This applies to all Heard County School System employees. This applies to all face to face students and K-5 virtual students. We do not have the authority to shut down GA Virtual School. The transportation guidelines suggest we take buses off the road when winds exceed 35 mph. See the attached pics for the forecast for our area. Some portions of our county are in the 55-60 mph forecasted zone. We discussed delaying school a couple of hours as well, but that would put kids at the bus stop at 8:00 a.m. The current forecast has everything coming in between midnight and 8:00 a.m. We don’t want our kids out in those potential conditions. There will be no extracurricular activities allowed tomorrow.
Rodney Kay
A Tropical Storm Warning means Tropical Storm-Force winds are expected in the warned area within the next 36 hours.
Sustained winds from 30-to-45 mph are expected with wind gusts up to 60 MPH from early Thursday morning into mid-Thursday morning.
Wind gusts may bring down trees and tree limbs, and downed power lines are possible throughout the region.
Unsecured objects may be blown about. Some fences and roadway signs may be blown over.
Rainfall amounts between 1-and-3 inches are possible with locally higher amounts. Flash flooding is possible in the affected areas.
Hurricane Zeta strengthened into a Category 2 storm midday Wednesday hours before it was forecast to make landfall in southeast Louisiana and then pass over the city of New Orleans.
The city is expected to experience wind gusts of between 90 and 100 mph this afternoon.
The West Georgia Area was already under a Tropical Storm Watch as of early Wednesday morning.
Stay tuned to HeardCitizen.com for details on any possible closings as they become available.
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