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Schools closed Thursday
UPDATE: City, county offices also closed Thursday
Idalia damage 1
A house in Lake George was damaged when a tree fell on top of it as a result of Hurricane Idalia. - photo by Lewis Levine

Liberty County and Long County schools will remain closed Thursday, and City of Hinesville and Liberty County offices also will be closed Thursday.

The city’s garbage pickup will continue as scheduled, Hinesville City Manager Kenneth Howard said, and the transit system also will be in operation.

Savannah Technical College will close its campuses Thursday, with classes being held virtually, where possible. The Coastal Health District also is keeping its office closed Thursday.

A hurricane warning and storm surge watch for Liberty County has been canceled, but a tropical storm warning has been issued for Liberty and Long counties.

According to its outage map, Georgia Power has 11 outages in Liberty County, affecting 655 customers, and six outages in Long County, affecting 175 customers.

Coastal EMC’s outage map indicates 1,811 customers have been affected.

For those residents who have a power outage, they are asked to call their power provider and not 911, County Administrator Joey Brown said.

Public works crews are canvassing the roads for debris.

“Their main objective is to clear the roadways for travel and emergency vehicles to get through,” he said in a Facebook Live update from the Liberty County EMA.

EMA Director Robert Dodd said residents should treat a downed power line as if it were still active and not go near it. He also said damage assessment teams will be out in the morning and reports of damage should be made to (912) 368-2202.

Liberty County Sheriff Will Bowman urged residents to stay off the roads as much possible and to check on any elderly neighbors or loved ones.

“We truly have a great community of citizens,” Hinesville Mayor Allen Brown said. 

Idalia damage 2
A falling tree damaged a home on Pine Avenue in Midway. - photo by Lewis Levine
Idalia damage 3
Winds snapped a tree at the corner of Sherwood Drive and Oglethorpe Highway earlier today. - photo by Lewis Levine
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Snow accumulation could be increasing
winter weather graphic

Southeast Georgia, including Liberty and Long counties, is under a winter storm warning from the National Weather Service.

The forecast for snowfall total has increased modestly overnight and freezing rain amounts are trending up along the coast.

Forecasters have high confidence that bitterly cold temperatures will impact southeast South Carolina and southeast Georgia this week. Near-record low temperatures are possible Wednesday night. Dangerous wind chills are possible, especially Wednesday night, with values as low as 8-15°F.

Precipitation is expected to arrive this afternoon or early evening, and accumulation of snow and freezing rain is expected. Snow could be from 1 to 2.5 inches, with locally higher amounts possible. An accumulation of close to a quarter-inch of ice is projected for mainly coastal counties.

The risk of additional freezing rain along the immediate coast Thursday night is now very low.

There are also could be travel issues into Wednesday night and Thursday as wet roads could refreeze.

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