Winter weather failed to show to cause any major issues, but frigid temps are moving in as the arctic blast settles over the area for midweek, with a slight warm up in store before the thermometer drops again.
Polk County dodged the storms that impacted a wide swath of the country and closer to home in the far North Georgia area, North Alabama and all of Tennessee on Monday. It has since pushed toward the Atlantic region and up toward the Northeast overnight after leaving Polk with just a minor impact from freezing rain and small areas of ice.
Polk County Emergency Management officials closed down the Emergency Operations Center in the next few minutes after they reported “no major impacts” from the scattered freezing rain that fell around the area.
“There may be some slick spots on roadways and glaze of ice on vehicles,” according to the EMA, so be advised if waking up late to let the car warm up and take extra precautions while driving this morning.
Crews did go out to pretreat roads and bridges around the county and within the city limits as necessary ahead of the storm, which fortunately stayed north.
Now the major impact will be from below freezing temps. The high for Polk is expected to be in the upper 20s for the day, and will dip down toward single digits overnight tonight with a wind chill below zero.
A wind advisory is in effect starting at 5 p.m. and will remain until 10 a.m. Wednesday, January 17.
A Warming Shelter is being setup by Community Share Ministries starting this evening at 5 p.m. at 770 Huntington Road, Cedartown. It’ll be open through Sunday, January 21. Those who may need arrangements to get there can contact Jason Slaughter at Community Share Ministries at 678-634-4395, or also John (note: no last name was included in the note from EMA) at 770-238-8901.
Polk County offices, City of Cedartown, City of Rockmart and City of Aragon offices will all open at 11 a.m. this morning, along with the Health Department in Cedartown. Polk School District announced on Monday that today is a Learn from Home day and made arrangements ahead of time in case the weather wasn’t safe for getting students to school.
GNTC also called off classes at campuses around the region today.
Check back for additional updates as they become available.
