Isaias leaves downed trees, power outages across North Georgia

Strong winds from Isaias toppled trees and power lines across Northeast Georgia early Saturday, blocking roads, damaging homes and leaving crews working through the morning to clear debris and restore electricity.

The worst of the storm swept through the region around 6:30 a.m. Oct. 10. By early afternoon, restoration efforts had reduced outages, but more than 56,000 utility customers across Georgia remained without power, according to PowerOutage.com.

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Reopening roads and repairing broken power poles

Across Northeast Georgia, utility crews faced broken poles, fallen trees and continuing wind and rain. Habersham EMC reported damage to both its electric and fiber systems and brought in additional crews to help. Jackson EMC also reported progress restoring service, while outages persisted in Towns County and other mountain communities.

In Baldwin, a fallen tree blocked Airport Road at Dilmus Court early Saturday. Public Works crews cleared the tree and reopened the road, with Baldwin firefighters helping warn drivers and redirect traffic.

Conditions were more dangerous in Sky Valley, where Police Chief Ron Baumes urged residents to stay home after trees and debris blocked Alex Mountain and Downing Street. He warned that other roads likely were blocked but had not yet been reported.

Public Works crews temporarily suspended road clearing during the early morning hours because conditions had become too dangerous to continue safely.

Baumes said residents needing emergency assistance should call 911. Emergency responders and Public Works would coordinate to clear access to homes if necessary.

Some Now Georgia readers shared photos of trees down on homes, but no serious injuries had been reported to the news outlet as of early afternoon.

Damage stretches across the state

Georgia EMC said storm impacts extended across Georgia, with the most significant damage to its cooperative systems concentrated in the western part of the state. georgiaemc.com

The North Georgia mountains also took a hit. In northeastern Pickens County, trees fell on vehicles and several homes near Oglethorpe and Sassafras mountains. No injuries were immediately reported.

Downed trees and power lines left roads blocked or difficult to navigate throughout Pickens County. Amicalola EMC said the entire Bent Tree community lost power after falling trees tore down multiple spans of wire along Cove Road.

Metro Atlanta also sustained damage, including a tree that fell onto a home in DeKalb County and fallen trees and power lines that blocked roads in Duluth. In Heard County, a driver struck a fallen tree and overturned but escaped the vehicle and declined hospital treatment, according to emergency officials quoted by Atlanta News First.

Georgia’s outages were part of a much larger disruption across the Southeast. Florida and Alabama accounted for the bulk of the region’s power losses Saturday afternoon, with hundreds of thousands of customers still without electricity.

Georgia Power said it had restored service to more than 60,000 customers since the storm entered the state overnight.