Mild quake in NW Georgia

There is no damage reported this morning from a mild earthquake that rocked parts of northwest Georgia last night. Officials say around 7:30pm Monday, a 2.8 magnitude quake was recorded. It was centered about 13 miles northeast of Dalton, 85 miles northwest of Atlanta.

NW Georgia student arrested on terroristic threats

A northwest Georgia college has suspended a student for making terroristic threats. Reinhardt College in Waleska suspended 24-year-old Ryan Sexson. He was arrested on campus for having two shotguns and 225 rounds of ammunition. Sexson is charged with carrying a weapon on campus and making terroristic threats.

Workforce grant aims to help struggling NW Ga

A boost of 250-thousand dollars from the state Department of Labor is going to northwest Georgia. The workforce development grant has been awarded to the Coosa Valley Regional Development Center. Georgia labor officials note the area’s large number of layoffs and unemployment rate higher than state and national rates. Unemployment in the Coosa Valley region is 6.2 percent--above Georgia’s rate of 5.3.

Georgia's Agruculture Economy Overview

Agriculture experts from the University of Georgia met with local farmers to discuss the industries outlook for the upcoming year. Crops across the board, such as corn, pecans, soybeans, and peanuts are selling at an all time high. But, the drought has wiped out Georgia’s livestock feed, and fuels costs have tripled. John McKissick, an agriculture economist from the University of Georgia said livestock farmers aren’t as lucky as crop farmers.

“Beef cattle producers are faced with rising costs from the energy side, yet their selling prices aren’t going up, in fact their's is going down some,” said McKissick.

According to the University of Georgia's Department of Agriculture, Georgian agribusiness brought in $2.5 billion dollars last year, even with the slump in landscaping and livestock profits.

City building arson charges for two Walker Co teens

Two teenage boys will be in Walker County juvenile court tomorrow for a hearing concerning the burning of a building in LaFayette that contained city records. A state insurance and fire official estimates that 500-thousand dollars of damage was done to the building in northwest Georgia that had mainly water and sewer department work order records for the city. A city official says customer accounts were not in the building heavily damaged by arson. The two 15-year-olds are being held in a Rome detention center until Thursday hearing.

North Georgia Gets Thanksgiving Rains

November marked the end of Georgia’s long, dry season. Thanksgiving week brought two inches of rain across North GA, where the drought hit hardest.

But, officials said it’s not enough to make a difference. That’s because the soil around Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona is so dry, the rain made almost no change in water levels.

State climatologist David Stooksbury said getting through the winter is possible, but without rain, 2008 could mean even more damage to Georgia.

“I think we will muddle though the winter with winter rains, good conservation and good management of our water resources. My real concern is next June through October,” said Stooksbury.

As long as officials continue to let more water out of the lakes than comes in, no amount of winter rains will help deter the possibility of running out of water next dry season, said Stooksbury.

Total burn ban in NW Georgia

Severe drought conditions have forced state forestry officials to extend a burn ban throughout northwest Georgia, just as the fall leaf-burning season begins.

The summer restrictions on burning were lifted for much of Georgia. However, for 15 northwest counties, officials had no choice but to turn restrictions into a total ban--no burning of any kind, no exceptions.

Mike Brunson is chief ranger for the Georgia Forestry’s Floyd County unit. He says the lack of rain is the worst he’s seen in his 24-year career.

"It’s going to have to be some kind of major cold front that comes through and covers a large area. Or, what sometimes happens this time of year...we get the leftovers of a hurricane that drops a significant amount of rainfall".

Some counties in northwest Georgia have significant rainfall deficits. Floyd for one, is more than 25 inches below normal for this time of year.

Officials will revisit the indefinite ban with the next big rainfall.

Fire at northwest Georgia carpet plant

A fire over the weekend at a carpet plant in Rome kept firefighters busy for hours, as it burned hundreds of bales of plastic. The blaze broke-out early Saturday afternoon within large bales of crushed plastic soda bottles, which are used to make carpet. Dark smoke from the fire at Marglen Industries Incorporated in Rome could be seen for miles. No injuries were reported.

Wildfires burn in Northwest Georgia

Drought conditions in Northwest Georgia are severe, causing officials to worry that a serious wildfire could be easily ignited.
Firefighters all over Northwest Georgia have been battling wildfires the past few weeks.
Luckily, all the fires have been kept under control.
But a controlled burn spread quickly out of control Monday in Floyd County and burned 70 acres, leaving some wondering if their town could be the next after Waycross.
Seventeen counties in the northwest are facing severe draught conditions, including the relatively populated areas around Rome, Dalton, Calhoun, Cartersville and Dallas.
Chattanooga’s northwest Georgia suburbs are also at risk.
Rain is predicted for the area all day Thursday, which could lessen the fire risk.