Authorities say a Georgia man has died on a rain-slickened road in western North Carolina.
North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper Travis Cochran says 57-year-old Kevin Kent Spurley of Conley, Georgia, was killed in the crash Saturday. Cochran says the driver crossed the center line of U.S. 441 in Jackson County, hitting another vehicle head-on.
He is the second weather-related death in the state.
Two people in the second car were taken to a hospital.
On Thursday, high winds toppled a tree that hit a vehicle and killed a passenger near Fayetteville.
Heavy rain has been falling in North Carolina for several days because of a slow-moving pressure system over the Southeast that linked up with a finger of tropical moisture from Hurricane Joaquin.
The same weather system was responsible for rains across north Georgia in recent days, followed Sunday by wind gusts of more than 40 mph that felled trees and knocking out power to thousands of people.
At one time, Habersham EMC had 117 outages that affected 8,608 customers and Georgia Power reported more than 1,000 customers affected by outages in Gainesville alone.
In addition, there was at least one report of damage caused by falling trees. A woman who lives near Lula, Stephanie McConnell, says a tree fell across a storage building at her house on Miller Lake Road about 9:00. Anaother tree was across Old Cornelia Highway near East Hall High School.
Lee-Gilmer Airport in Gainesville recorded 2.55 inches of rainfaill Saturday, bringing the total to 4.16 inches for the past week. The average for October is 3.85 inches.
(The Associated Press and AccessWDUN's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/10/340174/wind-knocks-down-trees-power-across-north-ga