Albany Public Works employees will be out Friday doing more storm drain cleaning and making other preparations to minimize any impact Tropical Storm Isaac might have on our area.
"Right now we're checking all of our holding ponds inventories to make sure all the ponds are pumped downed. We make sure all of our pumping equipment is up and ready to go," said Albany Public Works Director Phil Roberson.
"Well there's a good chance that we'll see some form of an impact. The big question is not if, but how much. Will it be a lot of rain? Will it be a lot of tornadoes? It all depends on the track," said WALB meteorologist Jay Polk.
Polk is tracking the tropical storm and on its current projected path, Albany may see tornadoes as a result of the storm.
"The area north and east are the most likely to get the tornadoes, so the closer the center gets to us, the more likely we are to get tornadoes," said Polk.
However, with much of Southwest Georgia has been under severe drought this year, heavy rains will actually benefit our region.
"Fortunately for Albany, we're probably 12 inches or so below our normal average rainfall. Most of the ponds and areas that would normally be full right now are not, so that's a plus for us," said Roberson.
As far as fearing major flooding, Polk says we shouldn't see anything like Tropical Storm Alberto brought in 1994.
"It's not an Alberto type situation. It's not going to park itself on top of us. It's not going to lose its steering currents. That kind of 20 to 25 inch rain fall is not likely this time," said Polk.
For now we must sit back and see what Isaac brings to the region.
One thing you can do at home to be prepared is actually keep up with the news and be up to date on the latest tracking of the storm.
You can download our WALB Weather App on your mobile phone to help you do that.
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