ATLANTA, GA (March 17, 2008 11:00 a.m.): The City of Atlanta and Mayor Shirley Franklin would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our government and community partners for their assistance during the severe weather conditions over the weekend:
Government Agencies
Atlanta Fulton County Emergency Management Agency.
Atlanta Housing Authority
Georgia Power
Atlanta Gas Light
Georgia State Patrol
MARTA
FEMA
GEMA
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
American Red Cross
Salvation Army
Atlanta Police Department & Sheriff Departments of Fulton and Rockdale Counties
Fire Departments from DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett Counties
Fulton and Cobb Public Works
DeKalb County K-9 units.
Community Partners
Kroger
Salvation Army
Home Depot
Wal-Mart
Beulah Baptist Church
Hands On Atlanta
City of Denver, CO
City of Baltimore, MD
City of Seattle, WA
U.S. Conference of Mayors
Congressman John Lewis
Senator Johnny Isakson
City of Atlanta Storm Updates
Parks and Recreation
- Members of The Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs are still working with other city agencies to get an assessment on the damages caused by Friday’s tornado.
- Starting Friday, members of the department were out clearing trees and cleaning up debris. Early Saturday, they were accessing additional damage and providing emergency services by providing access to recreation centers.
- We worked with the Red Cross to provide a shelter at Central Recreation Center and it will remain open until Tuesday.
- In the initial reports, 78 trees that were down were located in right-of-way areas throughout the city. We are continuing to remove the trees that block paths and throughways. The Office of Parks is still evaluating the amount of park trees that are down.
We can provide only estimates on the possible costs for damage; we are still ascertaining the damage to the following facilities:
| Historical Oakland Cemetery |
$4M |
| Butler Park |
250K |
| Hurt and Woodruff Parks |
$500 |
| JFK Natatorium |
$1M |
| JFK Park |
$750K |
| MLK Natatorium |
$100K |
| Old Flat Shoals Maintenance Facility |
$50K |
| Parks in Cabbagetown |
Undetermined - no access |
| Parks in Vine City |
Undetermined – no access |
| Total estimate: |
$5.6M |
The Butler Recreation Center and JFK Natatorium remains closed due to tornado damage.
Hartsfield International Airport
- No external damage to the airport.
- There was some hail and a funnel cloud sighted, but nothing touched down
- Close to 3,000 passengers were inconvenienced Friday night according to Delta (largest carrier). Around half were in hotels, and others stayed in the airport
- Passengers are catching rescheduled flights yesterday and this morning, resulting in security wait times of up to one hour
Passengers are encouraged to check with their airlines for updated flight information and to also check www.atlanta-airport.com for security wait times
Public Works
- Solid waste efforts concentrated downtown, Vine City, Cabbagetown and Southeast Atlanta
- 91 individual signal heads at about 44 different locations were repaired/replaced
- The Department of Public Works is assembling damage assessment teams to complete a comprehensive and thorough condition assessment. Teams are schedule to complete their assessments by Monday evening.
Police
- About 30 injuries in total; one firefighter injured
- No less than 20 streets are blocked off in a large area of downtown
- Traffic lights are still inactive at many intersections and are being treated as 4-way stops; downtown expressway ramps will be closed intermittently