Check our website: smokesignalsnews.com Smoke Signals, an independent newspaper, is published by Smoke Signals Community Services, Inc.
(SSCS), a 501 c4 non-profit organization. SSCS publishes Smoke Signals print and digital editions, Smoke Signals Weekly (digital) and the annual Big Canoe Community Directory. SSCS publications support the Big Canoe community and surrounding North Georgia areas. Big Canoe, a gated-community of 5000+ full and part-time residents, is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and bordered
by Dawson Forest on two sides. The newspaper dates back to 1989, when the name “Smoke Signals,” became official and monthly editions began regular publication. Smoke Signals has a 20,000+ monthly readership in Big Canoe and seven counties and has been repeatedly recognized by the Georgia Press Association (GPA) as an award-winning publication, winning first place annually for “General Excellence” in 2015 through 2019. Each month, community news is presented in four sections. News: Community, business, political, local and regional news fill the first section of the paper. Also included are letters to the editor, opinions and commentaries. Arts & Entertainment: A&E is designed to help our readers easily locate information about local and regional cultural activities taking place throughout the coming month. Living: The Living section features personality profiles, travel, club and church news, food columns, restaurant reviews, school events, medical information, shopping, literary commentary and humor. Outdoors: Smoke Signals’ Outdoors section features team sports, outside-the-gates adventures, hiking, golf, tennis and several columns about pets and their care. Smoke Signals Weekly is emailed to subscribers each week with the latest community news and events. These late-breaking news, updates and additional features can be found on our website smokesignalsnews.com. Also located on our website is a complete digital version of the current month’s print edition. Our domain name changed from bigcanoenews.com to smokesignalsnews.com on March 2020. bigcanoenews.com redirects to smokesignalsnews.com.
Very sad news about Shelly Harlan. She bravely endured multiple surgeries but her injuries were too much. Please pray for her and her family. Consider donating to one of the funds set up to help with expenses.
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Sara Blakley, founder of Spanx, throws the first pitch st Braves game tonight at Truist Park.
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TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME!
Honored to throw out the first pitch at the game tonight. I didn’t have my normal accuracy or velocity, but my feet were comfortable in my new ⚾️👠
Go Braves!
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/video/1504130
A Pickens County woman is fighting for her life after her home exploded over the weekend. A medical helicopter airlifted her to Grady Memorial Hospital's burn unit. The community in the Jasper area is rallying around her in a big way
https://www.facebook.com/share/AHutqQm1M1WSeNhN/
My name is Sarah Grubb. My mother's name is Shelly Harlan. She was involved in … Sarah Grubb needs your support for Please Support Shelly Harlan's Recovery ❤️
In case you haven’t heard…
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The rains often postpone NASCAR races, in fact, Sunday’s race was held on Monday. But Atlanta Motorsports Park found a way to hold their Amp’d Up event before the rains can Saturday.
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Thursday is the big day. Lowes Foods has a Grand Opening at 8 a.m. You're invited!
"We are stocking the tomatoes and throwing away our construction hats, and we will officially become Lowes Foods on Thursday, August 22. We will be cutting the ribbon at 8 a.m. Stop by and join us!"
The fire fighters in Pickens County not only fought the severe heat yesterday, but two major house fires, one on the west end of the county, near Hinton and the other in Marble Hill. Then the storm hit, causing further chaos!
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A BUSY SATURDAY - STRUCTURE FIRES - STORMS
Yesterday was a busy and challenging day for Pickens Fire. We were dispatched to a residential structure fire with an explosion at 2:30 PM on Hwy. 53 West near Ludville. First unit to arrive on scene reported heavy fire with visible signs of an explosion. A follow-up reported that there was an occupant that managed to get out of residence and was severely injured. EMS personnel initiated patient care and Air Life Three was immediately requested for air transport to transfer patient to a trauma center. Fire crews deployed multiple attack lines to begin fire suppression. Suppression efforts become very exhaustive on fire personnel with concerns of heat exhaustion. Fire personnel remained on scene approximately four hours to completely extinguish the fire. Mutual aid was requested from Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services and Gilmer County. One occupant severely injured, and one firefighter was transported to medical facility with signs/symptoms of heat exhaustion. Units responding to the scene were Hinton VFD, E-60, E-63, E-11, E-12, E-50, Med-11, Battalion 11, BSFD VFD Rehab-8, 1101,1121, FM-1, FM-2, CCFES E-12, T-18.
Forty-five minutes into the West Pickens fire, a second residential structure fire was dispatched at 3:15 PM in the Marble Hill Area on Old Harbin Road. First arriving units found home fully involved with fire with some collapsed. Automatic Aid was received from Big Canoe Fire and Mutual Aid again was requested from Cherokee County due to reduced resources on first incident. Fire was contained and home was a total loss. Home was reported by neighbors as being vacant for a while. There were no civilian or firefighter injuries with this incident. Units worked the incident approximately 3 hours. Responding units were E-20, Tender-2, E-90, Med-2, Med-5, FM-2, CCFES E-2, L-21 Battalion-3, BSFD VFD E-81.
During these incidents, Picken Fire Station-7 - Talking Rock Volunteers, responded and handled an automatic fire alarm on the West End of county.
After a very exhaustive day, the evening storms that rolled in around the 6:00 PM hour resulted in several calls to trees and power lines down along with EMS calls.
Here is an update on yesterday’s explosion and fire in Hinton, Ga. West Pickens County:
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Big Canoe’s Fire Chief issued a statement Sunday:
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Macey Padgett (left photo) captured the storm clouds that wreaked havoc on Pickens and Dawson Counties Saturday afternoon.
Steve Hall shot this dramatic image from Big Canoe. What appears to be funnel clouds have been identified as scud clouds by Steve Brueck, who is a weather expert.
I’m not an expert, so I looked it up. A scud cloud is a low ragged and wind-torn appearing cloud fragments, usually not attached to the thunderstorm base, often seen in association with, and behind gust fronts.
Scud clouds DO NOT produce severe weather. Scud clouds are often mistaken for wall clouds and tornadoes, especially when attached to the thunderstorm base.
A way to differentiate scud clouds from wall clouds is to watch their relative position with respect to the rain area: scud clouds move away from the rain area while wall clouds maintain the same relative distance (National Weather Service).
Jennifer Edwards Jordan captured the horror of today’s explosion at a house next door to hers on Hwy 53, west of 515.
Dawsonville had trees down and power lines sparking. Diners at Lucky Hare in Marble Hill were left in the dark!
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Unfortunately the entire North Gate Plaza lost power around 5:30 PM this evening forcing us to stop all operations. Health and safety codes prevent us from running a kitchen in the dark, and for good reason. It's just not safe to work a hot oven or use a sharp knife when you can't see what you're doing.
We apologize to all of you who had reservations, and those of you who were already seated when the power went out. We would have loved to serve you this evening. We hope to see you again very soon.
Do you follow Nascar? Do you follow local driver phenomenon, Chase Elliott, son of Awesome Bill from Dawsonville? Did you see the end of Sunday’s race with the shameful wrecking of two drivers to wrongfully claim victory by the grandson of a Nascar track and team owner?
Nascar listened to the drivers and fans and did the right thing (enforcing their own rule), which resulted in disqualifying Austin Dillon from using these “bush-league” tactics to claim a spot in the playoffs by cheating.
Unfortunately, it took a fan’s audio tape, revealing that Dillon’s spotter encouraged him to wreck Denny Hamlin, to act.
He is DQ’d from using his victory to gain entry to the playoffs.
Go Dawgs!
Georgia is No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason college football poll for the second straight year.
Check out Gretchen Kluth Hudock's weekly post, "TUESDAY TRASH TALK." She is passionate about educating Big Canoe residents about recycling.
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This was unbelievable! Only one person could do all this.
Trader Joes and Whole Foods stores planned for Ga-400 corridor.
Chefs living in Dawson & Pickens Counties may find the drive to shop at their favorite grocery stores getting shorter with two stores planned for Cu***ng and Sandy Springs.
Whole Foods will be coming to Cu***ng soon, after requesting a permit in Forsyth County. Officials tell Smoke Signals it will be near the Forsyth Collection shopping center, which features a big cineplex, Ted's Montana Grill and Academy Sports. The Whole Foods will be built on Ronald Reagan Blvd. just south of Peachtree Parkway.
A brand new Trader Joes will be built down the highway a bit, in Sandy Springs. But it's a lot closer to us than Buckhead.
Trader Joe's an American supermarket owned by the German discount grocer, Aldi.
Tragedy struck in Cherokee County, where a falling tree killed a man. The Sheriff's Office told Smoke Signals, "At approximately 7:48 p.m. Tuesday evening, Cherokee Sheriff’s deputies responded to 5767 Vaughn Road in Canton after it was reported a tree had fallen onto a moving vehicle during the storms that passed through the area.
When deputies arrived, they discovered a 27-year-old male driver deceased in the vehicle. There were no other persons in the vehicle. The victim in Tuesday evening’s accident has been identified as 27-year-old Levi Benjamin Wilson of Woodstock, GA." Witnesses said he was returning to his parents' home with food when a big gust of wind suddenly toppled the tree onto his car while driving down the road.
At approximately 7:48 pm Tuesday evening Cherokee Sheriff’s deputies responded to 5767 Vaughn Road in Canton after it was reported a tree had fallen onto a moving vehicle during the storms that passed through the area. When deputies arrived they discovered a 27 year male driver deceased in the vehicle. There were no other persons in the vehicle. The name of the driver is not being released at this time.
To celebrate the end of summer and the start of the 2023-2024 program year, Ridgerunners is hosting a Down-Home Hoe-Down, Aug. 8, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at the Lodge at Old Mill.
Jim Gibbs, owner, designer, developer of Gibbs Gardens, is at it again. He’s creating another brand new, unique garden of perennials and annuals—with nature’s color palette at the heart of
GA
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NSilent and Live auctions are an exciting part of the Legacy of Caring Gala scheduled for Saturday, May 4 from 5 pm – 10 pm. Check out some of the 170+ items silent auction items (except lot). Note: Lot number is 75 NOT 92.
Volunteers make the difference at the Legacy of Caring's Marketplace April 26-27 at the Broyles Center in Big Canoe. The public is invited to attend.
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