State ‘Ratcheting Down’ Storm Response Efforts

Still, more than 150,000 utility customers across Georgia are currently without power. During the storm, nearly 900,000 customers have reported outages. 

At a briefing Friday morning, Deal said Georgia Power and other utility companies are working around the clock to restore power.

“Progress is being made on that front which is apparently the most lingering problem that persists,” said Deal.

Earlier in the day, Deal met with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to discuss the recovery. Deal doesn’t have a dollar estimate on the damage done yet, but he anticipates this storm will be costlier than the one that hit two weeks ago. He’s hopeful Georgia will be able to secure federal aid.  

“There are times when people don’t want us to cooperate with the federal government. This is not one of those times,” said Deal. “ We are appreciative of FEMA’s presence. We are appreciative of the supplies they made available to us.”

Deal said response efforts for this storm have been much different than what took place two weeks ago. Beyond more lead time to prepare for the storm, he said several ‘lessons-learned’ were applied. Among them, using mass text messaging for weather alerts as well as communicating more with local meteorologists and school superintendents.

As a result, Deal believes there will be more confidence in the state’s ability to handle emergencies moving forward.

“I think if you do things right, it does restore confidence and I think we did things right this time,” said Deal.

He, however, wouldn’t say how this week’s storm response would affect him personally and politically.  

“I think the public will have to provide that answer. I hope they will see that we have provided the kind of leadership that’s necessary in this emergency and it’s the kind of leadership that I hope to continue to provide,” said Deal.

During this final stage of response efforts and the subsequent damage assessment, Deal said 76 counties will remain in a state of emergency until Sunday night and an additional 15 counties, including Columbia County, will keep the designation until Wednesday night.