Tropical Storm — De Kalb, Georgia

2017-09-11 · De Kalb, Georgia

Event narrative

The DeKalb County Emergency Manager reported hundreds of trees and many power lines blown down across the county. Two hundred sixty seven homes and businesses were damaged, mainly by falling trees and large limbs, with 65 of them reported destroyed or sustaining major damage. Over 200 roads were blocked by downed trees, power lines and other debris with over 106 tons of debris cleared. Estimates are that over half of all customers lost electricity in the county for varying periods of time. A wind gust of 47 mph was measured at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport and a gust of 72 mph was measured on top of Stone Mountain, around 800 feet above the surrounding terrain. Radar estimated between 3 and 6.5 inches of rain fell across the county with 6.32 inches measured in Decatur. One firefighter received minor injuries while clearing debris. Around $11 million in insured losses were reported.

Wider weather episode

On the morning of August 30th Tropical Storm Irma developed rapidly over the eastern Atlantic Ocean, just west of the Cape Verde Islands. Tropical Irma quickly strengthened as it moved west, reaching hurricane strength by the morning of August 31st. Hurricane Irma continued to move steadily westward across the Atlantic Ocean, intensifying to category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale as it approached the northern Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles on September 4th. By the morning of the September 5th Hurricane Irma had reached category 5 and remained so into the morning of September 8th as it moved through the northern Antilles and approached the Bahamas. Irma continued moving west northwest as a category 4 storm before turning north over the Florida Straits, and crossing the Florida Keys on the 9th and 10th. Hurricane Irma made landfall over southwest Florida as a category 4 storm during the evening of the 10th and travelled north northwest through western Florida before weakening to a category 1 hurricane as it crossed into southwest Georgia the afternoon of September 11th. Tropical Storm Irma crossed southwest Georgia through the day of the 11th before weakening to a tropical depression over north Alabama early on the morning of the 12th. Tropical storm strength winds produced widespread damage across central and north Georgia through the day of September 11th and into the early morning hours of the 12th. Isolated flash flooding associated with Tropical Storm Irma was reported as well.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 721430. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.