Severe weather causing havoc in Baldwin Co., elsewhere

Billy Hobbs, The Union-Recorder, Milledgeville, Ga.
·2 min read

Jan. 9—Severe weather is causing havoc for public works crews in Milledgeville and Baldwin County, as well as in surrounding areas of central Georgia.

Torrential rains, accompanied by howling winds that oftentimes are met by strong gusty winds, forced several schools in Baldwin and other parts of the state to be closed because of the threat of dangerous weather and the possibility of tornadoes.

Heavy rain caused flash flooding in parts of low-lying areas of Milledgeville and Baldwin County, and winds have brought down trees onto electrical power lines causing widespread outages.

Baldwin County Emergency Management/Homeland Security Director Wayne Johnson said approximately 1,919 customers were without electricity as of mid-morning Tuesday.

Those residents receive their electrical services from either Georgia Power Co., Washington EMC, or Tri-County EMC.

As of 11:49 a.m., Georgia Power reported 1,500 Baldwin County customers without power and 30,000 customers with outages statewide.

Wind gusts reached 35 mph at the Baldwin County Regional Airport Tuesday morning.

Saturated soil from all the heavy rains and strong winds caused a number of trees to fall onto the power lines, thus creating electrical outages.

In the Montego Court neighborhood of Baldwin County, officials with Tri-County EMC said a tree fell across power lines and knocked out electrical power to several customers.

Crews from all electrical power companies are working as diligently as they can to restore electricity to those currently without it.

Other areas across the county saw trees downed along Deepstep Road, just off Georgia Route 24 in Baldwin County earlier this morning, according to Johnson.

Other downed trees were reported along Collins and Little roads.

Authorities are urging motorists to stay off roadways unless absolutely necessary and if you have to be to please reduce your speed due to ponding of water on roadways and reduced visibility due to heavy rains.

Local residents also need to be aware that Milledgeville and Baldwin County remain under a tornado watch until 2 p.m. Tuesday. A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for a tornado.

The tornado watch was issued earlier this morning by the National Weather Service at Peachtree City.