Travel
How might Georgia football’s travel plans to Alabama be impacted by Hurricane Helene?
Kirby Smart on preparing for Alabama’s Jalen Milroe
Kirby Smart on preparing for Alabama’s Jalen Milroe
The Georgia football team’s plans of flying out of Athens Friday afternoon for their trip to play at Alabama Saturday night were still a go Thursday evening.
Of course, the impact of Hurricane Helene on Northeast Georgia could change the travel timeline to Birmingham.
“We’ll wait and see,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on his weekly radio show. “Get a forecast tonight. Wake up in the morning and get another forecast. See where we are in terms of Delta and the planes and see what our options are.”
The Athens area is under a Tropical Storm warning as well as a Flood Watch until 2 p.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
Peak winds were forecast of 30 to 40 miles per hour with gusts up to 60. Tropical Storm force winds were expected from early Friday morning to Friday afternoon. An additional 2 to 4 inches of rain were also in the forecast, with locally higher amounts.
Smart said flying instead of going by bus is still the plan.
“We’ll see if this hurricane will let us do that,” Smart said.
Athens-Clarke County schools and ACC government are closed Friday for non-emergency staff.
The University of Georgia main campus was were closed Thursday and Friday. That allowed the football program to moved things up Thursday.
Smart said it allowed for more recovery and more walkthroughs and also let them zero in more on Xs and Os.
Players were told to hunker down on Thursday night.
“Preparing for our guys to be safe,” Smart said. “We don’t want them traveling out like tonight. We want them to be in bed and done and not be close to the storm.”
The second hour of the weekly radio show on the Georgia Bulldog Sports Network that has former players offering insights on the team was cancelled due to the approaching storm. Host Scott Howard said that decision was to ensure the safety of the radio crew in Atlanta.