Thousands Still Without Power

Restoring electricity to thousands of Georgia residents is still the challenge this morning in the wake of the weekend’s winter storms that moved through.

Georgia EMC says there are still 13,000 of its customers without power. The outages are mainly concentrated in the northeast Georgia counties of Madison and Jackson. Georgia EMC crews are working to repair two sub-stations, along with a couple dozen poles damaged from the storm.

Georgia Power tells GPB this morning it is down to 1,500 customers still in the dark--all in the northeast portion of the state. It expects all power to be restored by this afternoon.

There are also a handful of county school system closings for today:

Clarke, Hart, Jackson, Madison, and Oconee counties. Elbert County schools will delay opening by a couple of hours.

Electricity Restoration Work Continues

Electricity is slowly being restored to customers across the state affected by the weekend’s winter weather.

A Georgia Power spokesperson says as of early this afternoon, it was down to around 25,000 customers still without electricity. The outages remain concentrated in the northeast Georgia region.

The Georgia Electric Membership Corporation says it has a little more than 20,000 customers still without power, down from 29,000 earlier this morning. Georgia EMC workers are focused on the hard-hit areas of Jackson and Madison counties, where two substations were affected by a transmission line problem. Officials say some customers may not get power restored until sometime Monday night.

State Recovers From Winter Weather

A Sunday full of snow, and an overnight of gusty winds across parts of Georgia have mixed to present Monday morning problems for parts of the state.

Officials with Georgia Power this morning tell GPB they still have about 28,000 customers without electricity as of 8am. The bulk of those outages are in the Athens-area, with strong winds causing numerous downed tree limbs onto power lines.

From the group of electric membership cooperatives in Georgia, serving four-million residents--they report about 29,000 customers without power. Along with outages in metro Atlanta, outages also are reported in middle and west Georgia. Georgia EMC says its biggest challenge involves extensive damage to a transmission line and two substations in Jackson and Madison Counties, which has impacted about 16,000 customers. Last evening, this area received nearly seven inches of snow, prompting repairs that could extend into early to late Monday evening.

The state Department of Transportation says they’ve been working through the night to handle trouble spots in Georgia when reports of icy patches on roads come in. Brian Gunter is with the DOT says about 100 trucks right now are on duty:

"Over the last 24 hours all over Georgia we've had over a 1,000 employees and 200 pieces of equipment just rolling around checking out the icy spots and laying down sand and salt."

There are dozens of county school system closings across Georgia, along with numerous private school and city school closures. The list of county school system closings as of 8:10 am:

Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bibb, Bleckley, Butts, Clarke, Clayton, Coweta, DeKalb, Dodge, Elbert, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hancock, Hart, Henry, Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Madison, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Pike, Putnam, Rockdale, Spalding, Taylor, Telfair, Troup, Twiggs, Upson, Walton, Wheeler, Wilkes.

Storm update: thousands still without power

Sandy Springs: a police cruiser blocks traffic along Johnson Ferry Road, near a telephone pole and power lines that were downed by high winds late Sunday afternoon. There were no injuries or damage to homes or vehicles, according to Patrol Officer Swinson of the Sandy Springs Police Department. Similar scenes occurred along nearby Riverside Drive, and in other areas of metro Atlanta. (Dave Bender)

Thousands of Georgia residents, most in Macon, are still without power this morning in the wake of destructive storms that moved through the state early Sunday morning. A spokesman for Georgia Power says 45,000 customers are without electricity--most are in the Macon area, with about 1,600 in the metro Atlanta region. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service confirmed that at least six of the storms spawned tornadoes. That includes a twister that struck Laurens County and killed a resident. Bibb, Clayton, and Carroll counties were also especially hard-hit by storms and tornadoes. Governor Sonny Perdue late Sunday declared a state-of-emergency for six counties: Bibb, Carroll, Douglas, Jefferson, Johnson, and Laurens. Perdue is in the Macon area today to assess damage. Several areas of the state cancelled classes for students.

Savannah Goes Dark for St. Paddy's Day

The color of Savannah's weekend St. Patrick's Day celebration turned from green to pitch black late Saturday as the city and most of Chatham County lost power, plunging the downtown party into darkness as thousands roamed the streets.

The only lights in the downtown historic district were flashing atop police cars as officers directed traffic amid throngs of revelers roaming streets littered with plastic cups and shouting "Paaartay!" and "Happy Blackout Day!"

"It's just people wandering around in the dark, man," said 23-year-old Danielle Smith of Savannah, looking for friends amid the confusion near the city's riverfront. "This is crazy!"

The blackout hit at about 10 p.m. as strong thunderstorms tore through southern Georgia and South Carolina just north of Savannah. Georgia Power said some 150,000 customers in the Savannah area were without electricity after transmission lines were knocked out by the storms in Effingham County, said company spokesman Jeff Wilson.

Lights in the city started coming back on about 1 a.m. Sunday, he said.

A few bars kept pouring drinks, with bartenders counting customer's drinks with flashlights, as patrons huddled around tables lit by candles. Smith managed to buy a cold beer for $2.50 at one darkened watering hole.

Power crews were trying to restore electricity to the Savannah area, Georgia Power spokesman Jeff Wilson said. It was unclear how long it would take.

Authorities reported few problems despite the potential for chaos. Police closed the riverfront bars by 11:30 p.m. and the lingering street party began dispersing an hour later as it began to rain. Savannah Fire Capt. Matthew Stanley said a couple of street robberies were reported downtown, but no major incidents.

"Everything's still very calm," Stanley said. "Everybody's just kind of wandering around aimlessly."

Steve Gaskell and his friends had just stepped off the elevator at their hotel when the power went out. They walked near the riverfront and sat on a park bench, sipping beer with a video camera ready in case anything crazy happened.

"We were expecting mayhem, but there isn't much," said Gaskell, 26, of Milwaukee. "We walked past a jewelry store and I figured the alarm was off and windows would be broken. But so far so good, I guess."

The blackout didn't stop Mike Birbiglia of Myrtle Beach, S.C., from heading out late to join the party. By the time he got to the ramps winding down to the riverfront bars, he said, police turned him away.

So he wandered with the rest of the crowd by the lights of a firetruck parked at an intersection, unsure of where he was going but hoping the fun wouldn't stop.

"We were looking for a good time, and then this happened," said Birbiglia, 25. "But I'm still having a good time."

Severe storms knock-out power to 90K-plus in north Georgia

A strong line of thunderstorms moved into the state around 5:30 this morning, downing trees and knocking out power to over 90-thousand homes.

The storms moved in from Alabama through Carroll County and into the metro Atlanta area. They've moved into counties east of the metro Atlanta area, including the counties of Barrow, Walton, Banks, and Jackson.

A 75-county area in north and central Georgia is under a severe thunderstorm watch until noon today.

Columbus: storms zap residents' electricity

Heavy rain and lightning storms cut electricity to some 10,000 Georgia Power customers in Columbus and the vicinity Monday night.

Two storms swept through the area; one drenched the town after 9 pm, cutting power to 2,000 residents, and a second thundered through at 4 am Tuesday affecting another 8,000.

Columbus Police Cap. J.D. Hawk said there were no reported injuries from the harsh weather, but added that trees were downed in many parts of the city.

Repair crews worked through the night to fix the damage, after heavy winds knocked down power lines and lightning strikes killed power in several areas throughout what Georgia Power calls the west Georgia region.

The storms affected 20 counties, with the main damage noted in Taylor, Crawford and Macon counties according to Georgia Power Spokesperson Konswello Monroe.

Monroe said crews are working to restore full service later today.

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