ATLANTA — Crews are clearing drains and managing trees ahead of Wednesday night’s storms.
“We regularly have weekly maintenance routes,” said Natalie Dale with the Georgia Department of Transportation.
GDOT crews have ramped up their work ahead of what they’re calling a dangerous storm.
“In advance of storms like this, we try to get in a little deeper. We try to make sure there is nothing visibly blocking that drain down into the grate,” Dale told Channel 2’s Candace McCowan.
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But still, GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale says to expect flooding on Metro roadways. There’s too much water coming down in a short time span, and the winds reclog those drains.
“Our clearing of drains will not absolve the metro of flooding when you have a storm system like this coming through,” said Dale. “Things like election signs, real estate agent signs, that sort of plastic: if one of those blows into the system and gets suctioned over a drain that’s completely clear all bets are off that’s going to block all flow into the system.”
Georgia Power crews are also on alert.
“We do have people that trim trees throughout the year to make sure that trees aren’t falling on our power lines; they work year round but going into hurricane season they’re cutting around the clock,” said Amanda Sowells with Georgia Power.
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