MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — Heavy smoke was causing low visibility Wednesday along Interstate 20 east of Atlanta as chemicals continued spewing from a beleaguered chlorine facility, and emergency officials warn that smoke from the disaster scene is projected to move toward Georgia's capital city after sunset Wednesday. Three days after a chemical fire at the BioLab plant in Conyers, Georgia, sent a huge plume of orange and black smoke into the sky on Sunday, Rockdale County emergency officials recommend that residents shelter in place from 7 p.
m. to 7 a.m.
each night until Friday. Air quality readings may reach “concerning levels” during those times for people in the path of the chemical plume, they have warned. The still-billowing chemical cloud was cutting visibility for motorists on Interstate 20 near the plant, between mile markers 78 and 82, the Georgia Department of Transportation reported Wednesday.
Drivers were advised to roll up their car windows in the area. But concerns and complaints are not limited to the Conyers area. People in Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs have reported a strong chemical smell and haze for many miles around the plant, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Atlanta.
Winds are expected to begin shifting from the east to the west on Wednesday evening, pushing smoke toward Atlanta, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency said. “Smoke is predicted to settle towards the ground as it moves toward Atlanta,” .
