Video: Live report from Highway 17 following closure due to Ogeechee River flooding (2024)

All right. I think this finally worked. I was having some technical difficulties, but I'm Emma Hamilton. Coming to you live from highway 17, heading into Bryan County, from Chatham County just past the loves seafood. They do have the southbound lanes closed right now. So just trying to give you all an update here on Facebook. We are going to wait until *** few people join us just so that we can make sure we cover everything you need to know. But for anybody that is just joining Emma Hamilton here with WJC 22 News. We are out here this morning on highway 17 from Chatham County, heading into Bryan County because it is closed. It is flooded out here. So we just wanted to give you all *** quick update here on Facebook. I want to show you behind me here. So sheriff's deputies, they allowed us to come down where it is closed off. This is highway 17 southbound and you know what, I'm just going to flip the camera around so y'all can see it this way. All right, there's Frank Frank's out here with me this morning too. Morning anchor team, you know, just doing what we do. But, um, so right now you are looking, this is *** highway 17 from Chatham County heading into Bryan County. Look at all of this water. I don't want to get into it. Um, because I definitely have sneakers on, did not bring my boots, did not realize be coming outside today, but they have this shut down right now. So Bryan County deputy is here on the scene, they told Frank and I probably about 20 minutes ago that *** deputy was coming out here just to check because obviously, oh, and they are coming down this way. I just got to get out of the way real quick. You can see right over the guard rail right there. Yeah, that's the river, that's the river that has come onto the roadway here. And so as I was just saying, Bryan County deputies, they were telling us this morning that one of their deputies was coming out here just to check on the area. Of course, this is an area that we've been watching the Ogee River and they saw all the water on in the right hand lane heading south into Bryan County. And so they shut down just the right side lane first and then you can see the water has completely taken over this left lane too. The deputy is not coming through. So I'm going to get *** little bit closer so y'all can see. So they have this obviously completely blocked off *** lot of water here. I mean, take *** look at this guardrail. I don't know if I can zoom in on Facebook live. Oh, I sure can. Ok. There's the guard rail and there's the river and if I flip it around for you. So this is heading north into Chatham County. That is the guard on the other side. You can see traffic still flowing from Bryan County into Chatham County this morning, but it is shut down going southbound. We did just see Georgia dot They are out here of course, monitoring this situation. And the dot representative, he told Frank and I that they are hoping within the next 90 minutes that they're going to have this left lane on the south heading southbound open. But you can see, I mean, the water, it's pretty deep. I I mean, I would give it, you know, *** good, uh I'm terrible with measurements. I'd give it *** good probably 2 ft maybe in that right lane. I mean the river, it is right there. Uh So they are asking people once they open this up, there's obviously still going to be some water on the road. So if you are going highway 17 heading into Bryan County from Chatham County and this reopens later, please, please please please take it easy, obviously, very dangerous. And if you hit this water going very fast, it is not going to be good. So again, highway 17 heading into Bryan County. It is closed this morning. The OI River has taken over really, I mean, pretty much both of these lanes. But thankfully Bryant County deputies, they were kind enough to let us in so that we could give y'all *** look here. They are turning traffic around at Bradley Boulevard. So if you're on highway 17, you're trying to get to Bryan County, you're going to want to go 95 because they are turning traffic right around. And we were obviously in that trying to come out here and it was definitely very backed up. Obviously, Chatham County schools, they went back today and so it, it was, it was backed up at that point. But yeah, we're hoping that, you know, at least this left lane right here. Hopefully that will get to open up this right hand lane. I think it's going to be *** hot second. Our meteorologist, Jonathan Myers was saying this morning that this river hasn't even crest yet. So that's, you know, that's the big concern that they're looking at is how much more water is going to come up and over this road. But you can definitely tell it's, uh, it's not shallow over in that part. I think it's kind of hard to tell on the camera, but, um, good amount of water right here. I am doing this for y'all. My White Nike is here. Um But yeah, I just wanted to give you all this quick update. We are live. We're going to be live again right before the top of the hour during Good Morning America. So if you have your TV on, but you can even see stretching down this way, still *** good amount of water. There's Frank, he is such *** good sport being my cameraman this morning. We are just, you know, the dynamic duo out here keeping y'all safe, making sure that everybody knows the information that they need to know. But again, if you are heading northbound Bryan County to Chatham County, you can see open clear as day, do not come southbound. We of course, are going to keep you updated right here on Facebook, on our social media on wjcl.com with all of the updates um when and if it opens, this is *** good amount of water. So the Department of Transportation rep told me that they hope to, you know, they're going to make this lane, I guess *** little tight. So even traffic, it's still going to be backed up once they finally are able to open this left hand lane. But um just really take it easy, you know that um evening commute if you work in Chatham County and you live in Bryan County, probably the best not to come this way. Um because it, it could be *** while. And again, like I was just mentioning earlier, our me just Jonathan Myers. He was saying this morning that this, this river hasn't even crest yet. And so now the concern is, you know, what does this look like throughout the weekend, it's expected to crest tomorrow, but you can just see how high it is. And I mean, that's the guard rail. It's just this amount of water. And unfortunately, this is happening in areas all across our viewing area. And so, um, you know what they say, um, don't drive through it, it's not safe, turn around, don't drown. And those are some very serious words, especially with all of this water that we are seeing due to tropical storm Debbie. So again, WJC 22 News's Emma Hamilton out here with my partner in crime, Frank Silks just trying to monitor the situation. We, you have *** crew from our day side crew that's going to come out and continue to monitor the situation all day long for y'all to make sure that you're staying safe. You know what roads are open and you know when you can drive through. But the biggest thing that I can breach to all of you again, please just slow, slow, slow down. Look at all of those trees. It's just, this is something. So again, be careful out there today, folks have *** Great Friday try and stay dry for everyone that is dealing with flooding at their homes, businesses. We are praying for you thinking about you and um we here at WJCL 22 our entire team is gonna be keeping you updated, you can see Frank, it's just always trying to get the best video, so gonna sign off for now. Um and just let us know if um there's anywhere that we need to be throughout the day today. And as always, please send us all of your video and photos, take care everyone.