Damascus, Georgia

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Damascus census division. It lies in ZIP code area 39841. The Survey maps it on the Damascus quadrangle. 212 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 228 feet above sea level.

Damascus within Early County

Population over time

2 figures

Damascus fell from 254 to 212 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	254
2020	212	-42 (-17%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1953 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1954 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000
1955 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000
1974 USGS Damascus quadrangle1:24000
1981 USGS Camilla quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Photographs

8 of 14 photographs shown, 1977

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Shape note singing convention, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Damascus, Georgia
Fleischhauer, Carl (Collector), 1977. Library of Congress

Town scenes, Sylvester, Georgia; Shape note singing convention, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Damascus, Georgia
Fleischhauer, Carl (Collector), 1977. Library of Congress

Houses, Sylvester, Georgia; Shape note singing convention at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Damascus, Georgia
Fleischhauer, Carl (Collector), 1977. Library of Congress

Shape note singing convention at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Damascus, Georgia; Folklife project field office, Tifton, Georgia
Fleischhauer, Carl (Collector), 1977. Library of Congress

Etta Anderson, Ocilla, Georgia, house interior; Houses in Sylvester, Georgia; Shape note singing convention, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Damascus, Georgia
Robinson, Beverly J. (Collector), 1977. Library of Congress

Shape singing convention, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Damascus, Georgia
Robinson, Beverly J, 1977. Library of Congress

Music jam session, Gaskins farm, Berrien County, Georgia; Shape note singing convention, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Damascus, Georgia
Adler, Thomas A, 1977. Library of Congress

Every photograph of Early County

Fires near this place

213 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 213 fires within 5 miles of Damascus between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,823 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 38 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	129
Arson/incendiarism	38
Equipment and vehicle use	19
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	11
Natural	5
Smoking	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	3
Recreation and ceremony	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2017	Smoking	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2018-EARLY-003
6 September 2016	Debris and open burning	1.4 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2017-EARLY-007
5 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2018-MILLER-001
5 September 1997	Debris and open burning	28 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
30 September 1995	Debris and open burning	1.5 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
29 September 2010	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2011-EARLY-012
28 September 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2020EARLY012
26 September 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2020EARLY010

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Early County

Storms near this place

11 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Damascus in 11 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 8 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 hail. The reports record 5 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
February 2021	Tornado (EF2)	Damascus	5 hurt, $500,000	A tornado touched down just west of Highway 45 south of Damascus in Early County, Georgia. Along Highway 45 the tornado snapped a few trees and damaged the roofs of a couple of houses. The tornado crossed the highway moving northeast and reached peak intensity as it hit homes along Killebrew Rd. Two homes and a detached garage along Killebrew Rd were destroyed down to their foundations, which were not anchored. One home was constructed of concrete block which collapsed. The other home was constructed of wood with a concrete block foundation. The 5 injuries noted came from these two homes. A truck was tossed from the detached garage and onto the homes. Several trees were uprooted and snapped, with other cars sustaining heavy damage. A large tree was uprooted behind the homes and thrown about 100 yards into the front yard. Two instances were noted of small metal pole projectiles lodged into trees. Another house nearby sustained heavy damage to the roof and had portions of the exterior walls fail. A propane gas tank was dislodged and moved at this location as well. Powerlines were knocked down and most trees were snapped or uprooted along this section of the path. After the tornado crossed Killebrew Rd, it headed northeast and appeared to weaken. Trees snapped and uprooted were observed along the rest of the track along Po Boy Lane, Pullen Rd, GA Highway 200, Big Pond Rd, County Rd 3, Billy Newberry Rd, County Rd 119, Patmos Milford Hwy, and Julia Jones Rd. Damage sustained in these areas were mostly tree damage along with a couple instances of minor roof damage. The tornado lifted in Baker County after crossing Julia Jones Rd. The tornado was rated as a high end EF2 with max estimated winds around 130 mph.
September 2004	Tornado (F0)	Damascus	$15,000	A tornado touched down near Highway 45 just north of Miller County. It caused minor damage to a few homes, and knocked down trees and power lines. Reported by the Early County EMA.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Damascus	$5,000	Trees were down west of Damascus on State Highway 200. A car was blown off the highway. Reported by the Early County Sheriff.
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Damascus	$2,000	Trees were blown down near Highway 45.
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Damascus	$500	The Early County Sheriff reported a few trees down along Highways 200 and 45.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Old Damascus	-	Large tree limbs were blown down across Highway 200 at Mile Marker 12 and blocked both lanes.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Damascus	-	A tree was blown down across Bean Ave.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Damascus	-	Approximately five trees were blown down across the county.
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Old Damascus	-	A tree was blown down on Highway 200 near Damascus.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Damascus	-	A few trees were down.
May 1998	Hail	Damascus	-	Numerous reports of dime to golfball sized hail countywide. The largest hail observed near Damascus.

Every storm recorded in Early County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Old Damascus	1.1 miles	8
Douglass Crossroads	2.4 miles	8
Crossroads	2.9 miles	8
Douglasville	4.9 miles	8
Rowena	5.7 miles	8
New Hope	6.0 miles	8
Hentown	6.4 miles	8
Nicholasville	7.7 miles	8

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Damascus	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2199224	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 355426. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.