Tag Archives: tornado

Videos: Seago back again, road crossing closures, CDBG, GEMA, and public safety radios @ LCC 2017-01-23



Lowndes County had no fatailities or major injuries from the recent storm,
but our neighbors to the west and north were not so lucky,

reported Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye.
They vote tonight at 5:30 PM on
is no longer on
the agenda,
but not on the

Seago rezoning,
because the applicant withdrew it.
They can talk about
CDBG funding,
because of “all the circumstances”, namely that the county is feuding
with all the cities in the county about tax distribution,
and can’t apply for any state or federal grants until that is resolved.
They

adjourned to executive session to discuss litigation:
does that mean they’re going to sue the cities about tax distribution
all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court again?

Below are Continue reading →

Seago back again, road crossing closures, CDBG, GEMA, and public safety radios @ LCC 2017-01-23



This morning at 8:30 AM
we’ll probably hear a storm report from Emergency Management Director Ashley Tye.
And back on the agenda for the third time,

REZ-2016-21 Seago, 4678 US Hwy 41 S,
still trying to buy a bit of adjoining land to get up to the minimum acreage:
see
the LAKE videos of the previous regular session, which link to all the previous stuff.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2017, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2017, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

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KLVB 2012 Executive Director’s Report —Aaron Strickland @ LCC 2012-09-10





Here is the

Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)

2012 Executive Director’s Report,
provided to LAKE by KLVB Executive Director Aaron Strickland.



This is the report he discussed at the

10 September 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session.

-jsq

KLVB report —Aaron Strickland @ LCC 2012-09-10



In

the 10 September 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
Aaron Strickland of
Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)
said there were two applicants for appointement to the
KLVB board: Emily Preston and Deanna Wagner.
They did not speak;
Emily Macheski-Preston and Deanna Wagner.
Ms. Macheski-Preston spoke (included below); Ms. Wagner did not;
maybe tonight.

He gave a brief verbal report, which he said
was a summary of a report he submitted last week
(which we the taxpayers haven’t seen).
He said at their Rivers Alive event last year
they had a record number of sites cleaned: seven.
Great American Cleanup, KLVB’s signature event
used to be 1 day, but this year was 3 days.

  1. Valdosta asked for help with a creek project.
  2. Helped emergency management after the

    tornadoes,
    through

    Ashley Tye     and a group called Vision 388(?).
  3. Traditional cleanup day in Valdosta, Lowndes County, and Lake Park.

He read some

statistics on numbers of volunteers and things cleaned up.
He listed some

future events.
There’s more in the video.

Commissioner Richard Raines wanted to know how much time commitment was involved.
Answer: an hour per board meeting and helping out with events and committees.

Here’s

the video: video of Aaron Strickland’s aural report:

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Videos @ LCC 2012 03 13

Here are videos of the entire 13 March 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC).

See separate items on

the appointment of Sheila Cook to the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Addictive Diseases Region Four Planning Board
and

“We expect you to run a clean, quiet establishment” —Ashley Paulk.



Other notable parts of this meeting were when

staff
said conservation status was a small detail and
and

Commissioners
proceeded to get rid of it in a rezoning.

At the end of the meeting,
County Manager Joe Pritchard



didn’t listen to Commissioner Powell’s request
and proceede to recount details of
road paving property signatures
until Chairman Paulk nudged him that the question was about
tornadoes, after which Pritchard

gave a recap of
Ashley Tye’s tornado report of the previous morning.



Here’s

the agenda.
Here’s

a playlist:




Videos

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission, (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 March 2012.

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

The Lowndes-Lanier County EF3 Tornado —NOAA



The tornado was an F2 in Lowndes County and an F3 in Lanier.
It went west to east, wrote the NWS in Tallahassee.
The

pictures we posted that day
were apparently where it first touched down, and even then
it ripped limbs off of trees and broke some off and threw them.

According to the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Tallahasse,

Severe Weather & Flooding Event of March 3, 2012; Lowndes-Lanier Co. EF3 Tornado,

The most significant damage of the severe weather event in south
Georgia and north Florida was caused by a tornado that moved from
just northwest of Moody Air Force Base to near Lakeland, Georgia.
The damage was assessed by a survey team from the National Weather
Service in Tallahassee. Most of the damage was consistent with an
EF1 or EF2 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. However, the most
severe damage — near Boyette Road and Highway 122 — was consistent
with an EF3 rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Maximum wind speeds
were estimated to be around 140 mph at that location.

As you can see by

NOAA’s map,
the tornado was an EF0, EF1, and EF2 while it was in Lowndes County,
(as Ashley Tye told the Lowndes County Commission
this morning),
rising to an EF3 in Lanier County, peaking at 140 mph winds.


View Larger Map

-jsq

Tornado report —Ashley Tye @ LCC 2012-03-12



No injuries or loss of life from the March 3rd tornado, but no disaster declaration
and thus no government financial assistance,
said

Ashley Tye
in a long report to the Lowndes County Commission this morning.
Such reports are not normally repeated at the Tuesday evening
regular sessions, so if you weren’t there, here is the only
place you will see it.

Ashley Tye remarked:

The good news is that there were no reported injuries or no loss of life.

There was a lot of property damage.
He said the National Weather Service
determined it was an F2 tornado,
and once it got to Walker’s Crossing it had winds of about 100 miles an hour.
He said 34 homes were affected, of which 19 were destroyed,
meaning uninhabitable.

He’s checking types of assistance that might be available.



Unfortunately, financial assistance is unavailable;
it requires a federal declaration.
And while the level of damage is obviously devastating to us
in Lowndes County,
it didn’t reach the level that would meet the threshold
that would cause the governor to request a federal declaration.

He said there had been a tremendous outpouring of volunteer support.
And insurance might pay off, although some people may not have enough
insurance.

He added that the county’s code red emergency system worked well,
and probably had something to do with there being no loss of life.
I know I got at least six county code red messages that day before
my message box filled up (I was in a building with no signal).

Commissioner Richard Raines asked if FEMA had to have a declaration for
GEMA to respond.
Ashley Tye answered:

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Tornado damage, Cat Creek and Quarterman Road, Lowndes County, Georgia, 3 March 2012



There was a twister in Lowndes County today.
The only property damage we saw was to this house on Cat Creek Road,
which now has a pine tree draped across it.
The house roof appears undamaged.

There are no reports of anyone being hurt.
Everyone is accounted for.

Then the tornado came through the woods to Quarterman Road:

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I am very concerned about a community that would purchase an armored vehicle over weather radios —Sharon Flory

Received 17 February. -jsq

My name is Sharon Flory and I am the Sales Representative for Alert
Works Products, the company who was working with Lowndes County to


distribute roughly 3,500 weather radios to the community. After
working for about 8 months with Ashley Tye we were both ecstatic when
the grant came through only to be shot down by the newly appointed
commissioner. I could not believe

what I read below.

She quoted

Lowndes County priorities: tanks and lunches for Commissioners, but no lunches for seniors? -jsq

I am very concerned about a community that would purchase an armored
vehicle, that would only protect about 5 people at a time, over
purchasing weather radios that would protect upwards of 10,000 people
when you consider the families that live in each home.

I am a sales rep and my job is to sell radios BUT my job is also my
passion. I live in Ohio and have been affected by storms all of my
life. I have been down right scared to death from storms and feel that
the politics in this town is not moving in the right direction.

I see that you have the same feelings and hope that you can make a
difference. Thank you for caring and keep up the good work. Someone
will listen!!!

-Sharon Flory

Alert Works

419-779-8132

Tornado Warning in Lowndes County right now

The

National Weather Service map right now shows a tornado warning for part
of Lowndes County:

This is at least the second time this month; here
another tornado warning for Lowndes County, from 5 April 2011:

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