The sun is beaming down through mostly clear blue skies today in Rockdale County.
This beautiful weather is much needed after a week of school, government, and business closures and late openings because of a winter storm warning that was set to drop 1 to 3 inches snow down on the roads and sprinkle the roads with ice patches.
However, that never occurred in Rockdale.
While the areas north of metro-Atlanta received the heaviest blows from the winter storm, all Rockdale got was a little bit of rain, says Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Dan Morgan, who is also the Rockdale Fire-and-Rescue fire chief.
“It was a rain event mostly,” he said. “We had short periods of sleeting, cold rain Wednesday afternoon into the night.”
The weather didn’t call for any emergency relief, but Morgan says just having the opportunity to prepare for the winter storm was worth it.
He says that in the three days leading up to the winter storm warnings, there was a lot of good intergovernmental communication and planning on how to deal with an emergency should it arise among the city and county departments, including the department of transportations, public works, police department, sheriff’s office, hospital, fire department, public information officer and 9-1-1 call centers.
“What happened preparation wise was very good,” said Morgan. “It was a good way for us to know who we have to contact for situations.”
However, unlike last year during Snow-maggedon, the calls for help never came, but Morgan was glad to see everyone working together to prepare for the worse.
“The preparation we did this year was real, but we just didn’t have anything to respond to,” he said. “We talk on a regular basis anyway, so everyone is already on the same page.”
While it looks great outside now, the rain is set to return to Rockdale this weekend.
According to the National Weather Service, there’s a 20 percent chance of rain Saturday night. The chances of rain increase up to 60 percent by Sunday night and the rain is likely to last at least through Tuesday.
