Mayor Tomlinson signs Declaration of Local State of Emergency

As Columbus officials and residents brace for the high winds and rain forecast as what is left of Hurricane Irma moves this way, Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said this is not the time to get complacent.

“Ours is still to come — that’s the other thing, it really is still to come,” Tomlinson said during a news briefing just before noon at the Columbus Public Safety Center. “We want to be very realistic and give you the most honest take on the information without making people overly comfortable about where we are. Because we want people to take us seriously when we say things are bad. It looks like a little better than we expected on Saturday, but we still don’t very much know.”

The pace of the incoming weather is slower than anticipated.

“It is moving slower than originally anticipated Saturday morning when we were making these preparations,” Tomlinson said. “It is also dissipating in power — which is a good thing.”

Over the weekend, Tomlinson called for prayer.

“I want to give a shout out to the community because, you know, the call for prayer, because maybe that worked a little bit,” Tomlinson said.

But don’t be lulled into a false sense of security because the worst this region will face is still to come, Tomlinson said.

Late Monday morning the sustained winds in Columbus were about 18 miles per hour, with gusts up to 28 mph.

“That is certainly something that this community can withstand,” Tomlinson said. “We do expect the conditions to worsen around 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. tonight. We will be experiencing, we believe, 41 mph sustained winds, which are the tropical storm level and a level of concern for us. There could be wind gusts up to 58 mph.”

Heavy rain — up to 5 to 8 inches — is also anticipated, the mayor said.

“So you can expect some of those areas that do flood, the 11th Street viaduct, Bull Creek, Cooper Creek and Weracoba,” Tomlinson said. “With 5 to 8 inches of rain in a short period of time, there will be some areas flooded that do not normally flood. That is what we are concerned about.”

There is no city trash pickup on Monday and Tomlinson urged residents not to place trash by the street until the storm clears the area. With the high winds expected, there is concern that trash cans and lids could clog drains.

Tomlinson signed a local state of emergency about 9 a.m. Monday and forwarded it to Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s office.

“It is in the pipeline should we need assistance during the storm or in the aftermath of the storm,” she said.

This story was originally published September 11, 2017 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Mayor Tomlinson signs Declaration of Local State of Emergency."