Tropical Storm Irma has left behind a giant mess in North Georgia - thousands of trees littering roadways and property, hundreds of thousands without electricity and at least one fatality.
WOMAN KILLED IN FORSYTH COUNTY
A woman died Monday afternoon when a tree fell on her vehicle in a private driveway in Forsyth County. According to the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, the accident happened near Shadburn Road.
The Forsyth County Fire Department and sheriff's worked to rescue the female passenger. She died from her injuries. Authorities were trying to notify friends and family before releasing the woman's name.
The death was one of three storm-related deaths reported across the state of Georgia.
EMCs, GEORGIA POWER WORK TO RESTORE POWER TO TENS OF THOUSANDS IN THE DARK
At the height if the storm, nearly 1.5 million Georgia Power and EMC customers were without power across the state of Georgia.
As of 7 a.m. Tuesday, Jackson EMC reported 61,979 customers were without electricity - almost 28-percent of its customer base. Sawnee EMC was working to restore power to 12, 872 customers. In Hall County alone, Georgia Power had 22,042 customers with no power.
Officials with the utilities said it could take days to restore power to all customers.
TREES, TREES EVERYWHERE
Roads across the region are littered with trees and fallen limbs that came down Monday afternoon and evening and during the overnight hours.
Hall County EMA Director David Kimbrell said his crews estimated up to 85-percent of Hall County roads were littered with debris.
"Right now crews are just cutting and pushing the trees to the right of way and will come back later to clean up," Kimbrell said. "Overnight crews cleared over 125 roads, some with multiple trees on one stretch."
Habersham County Dispatch reported Tuesday morning that every major roadway in the county had at least one blockage as the result of fallen trees. Law enforcement there said they were responding only to emergency calls and not to calls about fallen trees at this point.
Banks County authorities were in the same boat Monday night. They were answering emergency calls only, since they were inundated with clearing roads of fallen trees.
