Georgia governor makes it clear what people should do as Hurricane Irma hits state

Virtually the entire state of Georgia will be impacted by Hurricane Irma, said Gov. Nathan Deal, urging people in the state to get off the roads and shelter in a safe place.

“We urge you to not get on the roads until you have been given clearance by everyone that is required to give the clearance so that we do not have the kind of confusion that can result from a mass exodus,” Deal said in a brief press conference Sunday in Atlanta at the state’s emergency response headquarters.

As Georgia is expected to feel the impact of the storm beginning overnight, residents were urged to finalize all prestorm preparations prior to sunset Sunday and to shelter in place through Tuesday, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency said in a press release Sunday afternoon.

“We would ask the public, for your local area, to look to those local (emergency management agencies via) press releases, Facebook, for the information for your community related to evacuation, sheltering information. If you have a local issue, you can always call 911 as the No. 1 option,” said GEMA/HS Director Homer Bryson also at the Sunday press conference.

There are some 3,000 members of the National Guard staged throughout the state to help with storm response, Deal said. He also said he received a call from President Donald Trump on Sunday morning promising federal assistance.

Deal then toured the Atlanta facility, where dozens of people from numerous agencies are staging Georgia’s preparations and also will coordinate response and cleanup long after Irma passes.

Around noon, Deal had expanded his state of emergency declaration to cover all 159 of Georgia’s counties and said state government would be closed on Monday and Tuesday except essential personnel.

This story was originally published September 10, 2017 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Georgia governor makes it clear what people should do as Hurricane Irma hits state."