A blast of cold weather has come to Northeast Georgia along with strong winds that have been causing havoc on trees and power lines in the region.
As of about 9:00 p.m. Friday, about 2,705 people across the region were without power.
Zach Brackett, Operation and Special Projects Manager with Hall County Emergency Management, said temperatures in the county had reached as low as 15F, with wind gusts up to 35 mph. Approximately 25 trees had fallen across the county as of 6:15 p.m., with two of those falling onto homes. No injuries were reported in those two incidents. Several trees went down across roadways, but were quickly cleared.
Roadway impacts have been minimal, with a few reports of patchy black ice in Hall County that have since been mitigated.
"Hall County can expect the winds to continue to gust from 30-40 mph through tonight with a forecast 5 F low tonight according to the National Weather Service Hourly Weather Forecast," Brackett said. "The anticipated wind chill based upon that forecast is now -11 overnight. The public should know that this is the beginning of the event and it will be colder tonight."
The Associated Press reports that hundreds of people in Atlanta and parts of northern Georgia were without power and facing the possibility of subzero temperatures without heat because strong winds have downed power lines or knocked trees into them. A wind chill advisory for Georgia remains in effect through noon Saturday.
Geneva Davis of Douglasville woke up to a temperature of about 18 degrees Fahrenheit (about minus 8 Celsius). Her area had heat and electricity because the power lines are underground, she said, but those with overhead lines, “they're the ones who are suffering." Gov. Brian Kemp announced a state of emergency Thursday that loosened restrictions on propane carriers and allowed state parks to open warming centers for people who lose power and stranded motorists.
Below are a list of updated EMC outage maps covering the Northeast Georgia area. Anyone with an outage that has not been reported can do so on the EMC websites:
