Hall County officials reported that the impacts of the tropical storm Helene were not as severe in the area as they had originally anticipated.
Hall County Government released a report Friday morning that the lessened effects are due to the storm veering east. So far, officials have addressed 197 roadway issues since Wednesday afternoon, with the only significant closure at Campbell Rd. due to flooding.
Hall County Emergency Management Director Zack Brackett spoke on WDUN’s Morning’s on Maine Street Friday to provide updates to the community.
“We're still going to have some rain throughout the day,” Brackett explained. “We're actually still anticipating some 50 mile an hour wind gusts to be affecting our area through mid morning today. So our crews have been working throughout the night to get these issues cleared up, and they're still working in conjunction with the local utility providers to handle that.”
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office posted to Facebook that there were roughly 8,773 customers without power in the county as of 12:30 p.m. Friday. The flood watch for the county was lifted, however, a wind advisory will remain in effect for the area until 9 p.m.
Gainesville Mayor Sam Couvillon said on WDUN’s the Martha Zoller show he believes the Gainesville and Hall County area are in relatively good condition after the storm.
“I know there's some people out there that don't have power, and we certainly have some issues here locally,” Couvillon said. “But I think from where we were yesterday to where [we are today] we were spared somewhat.”
AccessWDUN will continue to provide updates on power outages in the area as information becomes available.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2024/9/1264511/hall-county-officials-say-impacts-of-helene-are-not-as-intense-as-anticipated