HELEN — State officials will spend time Monday trying to determine whether Saturday night’s storm damage at Top of Georgia Airstream Park north of Helen was caused by a tornado or some other form of weather.
“Earlier today, Emergency Management was notified of storm damage at the Airstream park on Ga. 75 North, just north of Helen,” said White County Public Safety/Emergency Management Director David Murphy Sunday.
Georgia Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service will send personnel to the site Monday to evaluate the damage, Murphy said.
Power crews from Habersham Electric Membership Corp. worked throughout Sunday to repair broken poles and downed lines in their power restoration efforts.
No one was injured in the storm, which arrived in the area just after 9:30 p.m. Saturday, those camping at Top of Georgia said Sunday.
“High winds and a hail storm late last night caused [power] outages in areas of northern Habersham and White counties,” said HEMC Marketing and Communications Manager Susan Baker on Sunday. “HEMC linemen, along with the Forestry and service departments worked throughout the night and into this evening to restore power to residents in both counties.”
Baker said about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, the HEMC Outage Management System showed outages in the Skylake community, Tray Mountain vicinity, and on Ga. 75 North near Top of Georgia Airstream Park.
“Due to the number of trees down in the roads, HEMC crews were unable to gain access to many of the outages until state and county road crews were able to clear the roads this [Sunday] morning,” Baker said. “In addition to trees falling on power lines, there were also five broken poles, which take about six to eight hours each to repair.”
A total of 68 HEMC members were without power, but it was expected to be restored Sunday night.
Katie Strickland, Georgia Department of Transportation District 1 spokeswoman, said GDOT maintenance crews responded to the storm-damaged area in White County with several pieces of heavy equipment, working until 2 a.m. Sunday clearing the busy highway that connects Helen with Hiawassee.
As the storm tracked across North Georgia from White County, it moved into northern Habersham County, uprooting trees and causing additional power outages.
“There were four broken poles reported in The Orchard community and Bear Gap area by 10 p.m.,” Baker said. “Power was restored to those affected members by 12:30 p.m. Sunday.”
In Habersham County, there also were no injuries.
