ATLANTA - Metro Atlanta Chamber president Sam Williams announced his retirement on Tuesday. According to a release, he told the Chamber's executive committee he will retire at the end of 2013 or when a replacement is hired.

Williams has served as the Chamber's president since December 1996, and had been at the forefront of a number of initiatives, including helping the city meet the standards of the Clean Water Act, to helping to attract more high tech, logistics and bioscience firms to Metro Atlanta.

At 68, Williams has served three years beyond the commitment he made in 1996 to serve until age 65. At the encouragement of the Chamber's executive committee, Williams has agreed to extend his contract until the end of the year, or until a replacement can be hired in 2014.

ATLANTA -- As much as they try, and boy do they try, it's hard for kids to get up close to the creatures in Zoo Atlanta's World of Reptiles.

Even the Zoo's president admits  the railings are too high and the environment's not as natural as the zoo's other exhibits.

"It's over 50 years old," Zoo Atlanta President and CEO Raymond King told 11Alive's Jennifer Leslie. "We've gotten our useful life out of it."

King remembers going to the World of Reptiles as a kid, and it really hasn't changed much.

It's now the oldest structures still in use for public exhibits at the zoo.

"It's one of those institutions," Kind said. "For some, it's a last bastion of childhood."

But change is coming, thanks to the zoo's single-largest fundraising effort.

At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, zoo officials will break ground on a $22 million, state-of-the-art amphibian and reptile experience.

Imagine a hurricane making landfall on Georgia’s coastline, with winds 150 mph or greater causing terrible damage.  The tropical cyclone spawns several tornadoes as it moves inland and heavy rains cause major flooding.  High winds also persist resulting in uprooted trees and down power lines.