MOULTRIE – Community leaders met Wednesday afternoon to coordinate efforts to plan for the forecasted arrival of Hurricane Helene.

County Administrator Chas Cannon led the meeting, along with Colquitt County Emergency Management Director Justin Cox.

“Currently the storm is just now moving into the Southern Gulf. It’s gonna cross the Yucatan Peninsula. It is now a Category 1 hurricane, from my understanding,” said Cox.

He went on to say that it was projected to make landfall as a Category 3 somewhere in the Big Bend of Florida.

“I would guess, we would probably have an impact of at least a Category 1. Hopefully, landfall will weaken it down a lot more than that,” he said.

Cox also said that Colquitt County is projected to start feeling tropical storm force winds, which are 39 mph or greater, as early as 5 p.m., Thursday, but most likely, between 8 and 9 Thursday night.

He said there’s about a 12-hour window of impacts, so it will move out sometime in the early hours of Friday.

“This is a very large storm, this a very powerful storm,” Cox said.

He went on to say that there would be a lot of trees down, a lot of power outages and a lot of roads closed.

“That’s as bad as it gets for us,” he added.

Cox also said that they would open the Emergency Operations Center around 1 p.m. Thursday, and two EMS crews would be staffed there, off and on throughout the event.

Cannon asked Cox if it was fair to say that this was the largest storm the community has had in the past five or ten years.

“I would compare it to Michael in 2018,” responded Cox.

As far as the County offices, Cannon said they would be open Thursday for half of the day, closing around 1 p.m. On Friday they plan on opening after lunch if they have power, he said.

He also said that curbside garbage pick-up will run a normal Thursday route and, it they are unable to run Friday, they will pick-up either Saturday or Sunday. The county’s landfill will be open Thursday and open Friday after lunch if there’s power, he said. There will be a week-long grace period, Cannon said, for woody debris at the landfill, for residents only.

As far as the city’s garbage service, Thursday routes will run normal and they are planning the routes to run normal on Friday but will make that decision after the hurricane passes.

Colquitt County School Superintendent Dan Chappuis said Colquitt County schools will be closed Thursday and Friday. Nestor Colls, the headmaster of the Colquitt Christian Academy, said the private school would be closed those days, as well.

Sheriff Rod Howell and Moultrie Police Chief Chad Castleberry agreed that there would be a “shelter-in-place” put into effect from midnight to 8 a.m. Friday. The other agencies that were represented at the meeting agreed, as well.

“That’s to keep people off the roads so we can get those utility crews out there, going, to get the power back up, clear roads and debris, trees, and everything else that’s in the road,” said Cannon.

Leaders of some of the agencies said that if the winds get up to 40 mph, there are some services that will stop until they get below that wind speed including ambulance, utility crews, the city fire department, GDOT and 911 Dispatch.

Castleberry said that as far as the Moultrie Police Department, they were as prepared as they could be.

Dustin Hart, president of the Volunteer Firefighters Association, said that station 12 would most likely be open and operational all of Thursday, Thursday night and Friday.

Colquitt County E-911 Director Teresa Warburg said her agency would alert the fire department, police and roads and bridges to where trees were down.

A representative from GDOT said they will send crews out after the wind speed drops to clear Hwy. 319 first, and then prioritize the rest of the roads after that.

Cannon said that since Gov. Brian Kemp had declared a state of emergency, there were Georgia National Guard soldiers that will be activated but he wasn’t sure where they would be posted, yet.

Jody Redding, Gov. Kemp’s Director of Field Services, said, “State resources are being placed now.”

Cannon said that sandbags would be made available to residents of the city and the county and they would be putting information about that out on social media.

Cox said that Spence Field Community Center will be a shelter for residents who don’t feel safe riding out the storm at home. It’s not a pet-friendly shelter.

“Remember to communicate up and down,” said Cannon.