Storms pummel north Georgia with rain, winds

UNDATED - Powerful storms tore through north Georgia Monday, carving a path of power outages, damaging winds and the threat of tornadoes.

Tornado sirens sounded as commuters headed home from work at rush hour, trying to navigate flooded streets in the city's northern suburbs.

The storms also knocked out power in several places across the state.

Georgia Power reported that 15,000 customers were without electricity at one point (including 4,000 in Gainesville), but most had service restored quickly after the storms subsided.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries, officials said.
In Bartow County, there was a report of a funnel cloud but no confirmation that it was a tornado.

``We don't have any reports of damage with that yet, but daylight and the calming of the weather may reveal something tomorrow,'' said Alex Gibbs, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service outside Atlanta.

Gibbs said there were reports of widespread tree damage in parts of northwest Georgia.

In the Dalton area, high winds blew the roof off of a home and trees had fallen through another roof. Whitfield County Emergency Management Director Claude Craig told the Daily Citizen of Dalton that much of the northern part of the county lost power for a time.

Louis Boyatt said he was in the living room of his mobile home in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood north of Dalton when the front porch begin to lift up.

``The roof came off and hit the power line, then hit my truck, and (the roof) started coming apart,'' he recalled. ``It happened in just seconds and then it was over.''

In the Atlanta suburbs, fallen trees and power lines were being cleared in Alpharetta and Woodstock. In Lawrenceville, a tree fell on a home, Gwinnett County fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said.

As the storms swept through Atlanta, all arriving jets were halted for a time at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. There were also delays of up to two hours for departures.

GAINESVILLE, HALL COUNTY

Hall County School System Spokesman Gordon Higgins said roughly 11 buses were on the road when the storm hit the area. He said they were carrying elementary school students who were going home following after-school programs. Higgins said those bus drivers were advised to pull off on the side of the road for roughly 10 to 15 minutes while the storm passed.

"And the bus drivers were directed to pull off to a safe area until the high winds diminished so they could continue," said Higgins. He said the buses were back on the road by 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Gainesville City Schools Superintendent Marianne Dyer said students involved in after-school programs at the city schools were not released until the storm passed.

Hall County Fire Marshal Scott Cagle said in some ways, Hall County dodged a bullet.

"Again, there were no reports of any funnel clouds or tornadoes," Cagle said. "It was some strong winds that came through rather quickly."

Although there were no tornado sightings, Cagle said there were plenty of down trees reported in the area.

Trees were reported down across Mount Vernon Road in Gainesville between Thompson Bridge Road and Wahoo Bridge. In addition, trees were reportedly blocking Gainesville Street at Tanner Street. Traffic lights were reportedly out at a number of locations including Dawsonville Highway and McEver Road.

"We had numerous calls during a one-and-a-half hour period, mostly consisting of trees and power lines down throughout the county, with approximately 25 roads affected," Cagle said. "At this time we have had no reports of injuries and reports of only three structures affected by trees/power lines. During the weather incident there was a report of a home being struck by lightning on Suggs but with no major damage."

Cagle said the 911 center answered around 175 calls in about 90 minutes. Most of those calls were for trees down, power lines down, traffic lights out and wrecks.

"In addition to the firefighters and law enforcement officials that handled this weather event were the unsung heroes at the 911 center," Cagle said "They are truly amazing and I bet if you were to look up the word multi-tasker in the dictionary, you would see the picture of a Hall County dispatcher."

(The AccessNorthGa.com news staff contributed to this report.)