A few school districts announced Wednesday they are closing for the rest of the week, and Bibb County is one of them. The district says right now, 6 of its schools don't have power.
While many parents have to find care for their kids during the day, one Bibb parent is thankful he has his boys around to help with storm cleanup.
Jacob Cox and his two boys are cleaning up the mess the storm left behind at their rental home in north Macon.
“It’s a challenge,” Cox said. “I enjoy spending time with my wife and sons. I don’t have enough time to do that anyway, unfortunately, it's been spent doing this.”
His sons spent their days off working in the yard, and now they'll have two more days to finish the job.
“We're going to be cleaning up this mess more and more until we finally finish it,” his son Philip said.
The house is just down the street from Rosa Taylor Elementary, one of six Bibb schools without power. Bibb Schools Director of Safety and Security David Gowan says their main reason for canceling is it’s not safe for kids to get to and from school.
“We've had those factors this week with roads closed, power lines down, and trees intermingled with that, and we can’t have schools without power,” Gowan said.
He says debris and power lines are in the path of hundreds of their bus routes. Gowan says power outages are also causing problems for a few of their cafeterias, too. They had to take out all the food from them for the schools without power.
“The coolers and the freezers have raised to a certain temperature,” Gowan said. “Then those kitchens' freezers and coolers have to be inspected by the Macon-Bibb Health Department before we can serve food out of those kitchens again.”
While it might be a headache for some parents trying to make arrangements for their kids during the day, Cox sees the extra family time as a good thing.
“Unfortunately, we had this storm, so I’m sure a lot of kids are doing like mine are and helping their parents out, but it’s just a week, parents, and Monday is on the way,” Cox said.