Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - 2:48PM

Hurricane Michael

The governor has now added Putnam County to the existing list of counties that under as state of emergency in relation to potential damage from “Hurricane Michael” which is just now making shore in the panhandle of Florida.

The latest information from the National Weather Service has our county under a Tropical Storm and Flash Flood Warning in connection with the storm. There is also a danger of what are called “Spin Off” tornadoes in weather conditions such as these. They have further predicted we will have somewhere between 3 and 5 inches of rain overnight and obviously that could result in flooding in some low lying areas.

The latest forecast is predicting wind gust of 30 to 40 miles per hour for the western half of Putnam and gust of up to 50 miles per hour in the east and southeast areas of the county. If such wind conditions do develop, there most assuredly will be numerous trees falling which will also result in power outages and considering the widespread areas of Georgia that are being affected by the hurricane, people could very well be without power for extended periods of time.   The weather service is predicting the potentially dangerous winds to arrive in Putnam County around 11:00PM tonight and will continue until around 8:00AM tomorrow morning.

Please stay tuned to television and radio broadcasts and pay heed to any future warnings that may be issued. The weather information provided by the news media comes from the same sources that we receive here at the sheriff’s office.

Putnam County Schools were already closed this week and Gatewood has announced it will be closed tomorrow. All Putnam County Offices, except for your Sheriff’s Office, will be closed tomorrow.

In addition to my personnel, the county’s public works, fire, and EMS departments are prepared to respond to problems as such may develop throughout the night.

Howard R. Sills, Sheriff