Edgar Evins State Park will reopen Friday after a microburst storm last week caused significant damage.
Park Manager 2 Brad Halfacre said crews have successfully restored water and power services to the park and the marina. Halfacre said the roadway is now clear and passable, though visitors will still see evidence of the cleanup as they enter the park.
“My staff always takes pride in the way it looks and me and my maintenance supervisor was talking that it, one thing made him sick, he’s like, ‘We had this place looking so good,’” Halfacre said. “But it will be again, but right now there’s is some piles of debris on the side of the road.”
Halfacre said the next phase of the recovery involves chipping branches and assessing the condition of the park trails. Halfacre said while the office and general operations are ready for visitors, it could take up to two months to return the park to its original aesthetic condition.
Halfacre said the restoration was a collaborative effort involving the local T-DOT DeKalb County group, which utilized a snowplow to help clear the roads. Halfacre said the electric company and Twin Lakes also deployed large crews to the site to restore essential utilities and Wi-Fi.
“So just the response of everybody and then just the calls, the posts, people, saying, ‘Hey, praying for the park,’ we hope everything’s okay,” Halfacre said. “We had no injuries. Nobody was injured. We had some structural damage but nothing that’s can’t be fixed and so we really dodged a bullet right there.”
Halfacre said the storm hit last Friday, bringing high winds and heavy rain that downed approximately 50 to 60 trees. Halfacre said the fallen timber blocked the only entrance and exit to the park, leaving an estimated 50 to 60 people stuck inside as they attempted to leave the lake.
“I can’t brag enough on my team,” Halfacre said. “My team, my maintenance, they were incredible. Lot of the guys was out come back into work Friday, helped, we were out till almost 2:00 in the morning. On the same thing on Saturday, they put in a long hard day Saturday.”
Halfacre said visitors should follow posted speed limits and remain alert for potential temporary road closures as cleanup continues.