Georgia Counties Getting New Weather Radios

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(TNS) — Two hundred emergency weather radios are being distributed to critical facilities throughout Milledgeville and Baldwin County.

The new weather radios were made available to the Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency through a Hazard Mitigation Grant, according to Wayne Johnson, director of the agency.

Several radios have already been distributed to critical facilities throughout the city and county.

“I’ve still got several more of the radios to distribute,” Johnson said, noting he plans to have the remainder of them delivered within the next several days. “These radios will be very helpful in the event of any bad weather such as a tornado or severe thunderstorms.”

Johnson said he is grateful the city and county received that many emergency weather radios.

Just last March, a tornado unleashed its fury in portions of Baldwin County, leaving in its wake a path of destruction, and causing an undetermined amount of damage to rooftops and other damages to buildings on the campus of Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin hospital in Milledgeville. Several businesses also were heavily damaged within the city limits before the tornado moved across the river into the eastern portion of the county.

Fortunately, no was killed and there were no injuries.

Back in 2019, Johnson said neighboring Putnam County applied for a similar Hazard Mitigation Grant for generators at Sinclair Water Authority.

Baldwin County and Putnam County have a shared partnership with the Sinclair Water Authority.

Baldwin County Manager Carlos Tobar said the grant for the generators at the Sinclair Water Authority plant near Lake Sinclair was estimated to be $400,000.

Tobar said U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia ) is in the process of trying to get that amount adjusted because inflation has increased the cost so much since that particular grant was applied for.

The local match for each of the counties is $35,000, Tobar said.