Tropical Storm Irma claims one life in Worth County
Worth EMA says trees down, power outages in southern part of county
Tropical storm Irma rolled through southwest Georgia with wind gusts of up to 50 mph, resulting in a death in Worth county and numerous power outages across the region. (Staff Photo: Terry Lewis)
By Terry Lewis
SYLVESTER — Worth County was hit by a strong band from Tropical Storm Irma at approximately 10:30 Monday morning, resulting in one fatality, power outages and people trapped in their homes.
The death occurred on Herring Road when a man reportedly fell off of the roof of his home. Worth County EMA Director Tom Whittington confirmed the fatality, but could not provide details.
Earlier in the day the county was hit by a strong band of winds from the storm.
“We’re in the middle of it right now,” Tom Whittington said. “We have trees down, power outages, reports of people trapped in their homes. The hardest hit area seems to be in the southern part of the county. We don’t know the exact number of people trapped because our crews haven’t arrived on the scene yet. We have five crews out right now.”
The County was still assessing the extent of the power outages, but it might take some time to fully restore power since Mitchell EMC had just three trucks in the county.
“Mitchell EMC sent trucks to Florida and Texas (for Hurricane Harvey), and we just have three trucks in the county,” Whittington said.
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