State says it is prepared for whatever Idalia brings Georgia’s way

ATLANTA — Georgia’s emergency operations center is up and active as Hurricane Idalia gets closer to moving into the state.

Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for the entire state on Tuesday as the storm is expected to impact the southeastern part of Georgia at some point on Wednesday.

They aren’t sure if Idalia will be a hurricane or tropical storm when it crosses over into Georgia, but they know it will bring rain and wind to an area still recovering from Hurricane Michael five years ago.

Channel 2′s Richard Elliot went to the ops center on Tuesday as emergency officials were monitoring the latest information on the storm.

“We’re prepared. Now we’re ready to go into action,” Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security director Chris Stallings said.

State meteorologists still aren’t exactly sure what kind of storm Idalia will be when it gets here.

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“We’re looking at it right now, with the forecast, either a Category 1 or tropical storm force winds coming in through South Georgia and, you know, toward the southeastern part of this state,” GEMA spokeswoman Lisa Rodriguez-Presley said.

Just in case, Kemp issued a statewide emergency declaration, so GEMA and other agencies have the legal and necessary tools they need to respond.

“We are taking every precaution ahead of Hurricane Idalia’s landfall tomorrow, and I am taking this additional executive action to ensure state assets are ready to respond,” Kemp said in a news release Tuesday.

While Idalia’s track is similar to that of Hurricane Michael five years ago, which did more than $1 billion of damage to South Georgia agriculture, this storm doesn’t appear to be nearly as strong.

“Kind of the center part of the storm is maybe 30 to 40 miles wide as opposed to hundreds of miles wide which we saw in other storms, and it is moving rapidly. So the hope is it continues to move rapidly and moves right on out of the state,” Rodriguez-Presley said.

GEMA will continue to get briefings on Idalia’s strength and track throughout the night and into Wednesday so it can know where to deploy resources if needed.

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