Brunt of storm’s effect in south Georgia will be felt overnight

ALBANY — Albany and Dougherty County are no strangers to storms, but Hurricane Michael, which breached landfall along the Florida panhandle Wednesday afternoon before setting its sights on Albany, is an entirely different animal.

Michael made landfall as the strongest hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle in recorded history, with its winds and storm surge wreaking havoc along the shore.

Michael’s extremely dangerous center crossed near Florida’s Mexico Beach at around 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday with sustained winds of 155 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

Rain has already begun to fall in Albany, and accompanying winds are expected to pick up throughout the afternoon into the night.

Dougherty County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Jenna Wirtz Chang said she expects the area will feel the brunt of the storm overnight Wednesday into Thursday.

“This will definitely be an overnight event,” Chang said. “My biggest concern is wind damage. We’ll begin to see some effects tonight as the wind picks up and we’ll get some rain. The more intensive part of the storm will likely occur overnight Wednesday into Thursday. It’s moving pretty fast, but that’s a blessing and a curse because it will move through quickly but it also won’t have time to break up.”

Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard stressed safety at a news conference called to update media on Michael.

“We want our citizens to know that public safety is our No. 1 priority, and we want to do everything we can to assure our citizens are safe,” Hubbard said. “We know that Hurricane Michael is coming, and we certainly want everybody to be prepared when it actually hits us.”

Dougherty County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas agreed with the mayor.

“We do have the benefit of a lot of advance notice. We’ve obviously been through disasters before here in Dougherty County, and we are all very sensitive to that,” Cohilas said. “We also recognize that many of our citizens are still recovering from the storms in 2017. We urge everyone to continue to watch the news and listen to the updates from the Dougherty County Emergency Management Agency.

“This is different from a tornado. These will be sustained winds that occur for a significant period of time. We don’t know if (Michael) will be a hurricane or not when it hits Dougherty County. But what we do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that it will at least be tropical force sustained winds for an extended period of time. Make sure you are in a home with a strong foundational structure. If you don’t currently live in one, try to get into one with your own personal resources or through one of the available shelters that are out there.”

The Dougherty County Emergency Operations Center is active and will operate on a 24-hour basis for the duration of the weather event. The EOC information lines are open at (229) 483-6226 and (229) 483-6227.