Thousands without power across the region

UNDATED - As ice forms on power lines across north Georgia, power outages are popping up in a number of areas.<br /> <br /> According to Jackson EMC Public Relations and Communications Director Bonnie Jones, as of 11 p.m. Monday night her company had over 72,000 customers reporting outages across 8 counties.<br /> <br /> The greatest concentration of those customers, whose power issues stemmed from over 1,100 individual outages, were in Hall and Gwinnett counties, with roughly 22,000 and 16,000 outages reported respectively. <br /> <br /> Other counties dealing with significant outages included Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Jackson, Lumpkin and Madison counties.<br /> <br /> Jackson EMC activated its Emergency Restoration Plan early Monday afternoon and has all trucks stocked and gassed, ready to respond to outages.<br /> <br /> The National Weather Service has said that one of the dangers of the icy weather is accumulations on trees and power lines. It is possible that trees could fall on power lines, and that could lead to outages during the warning period.<br /> <br /> Freezing rain began coating exposed objects such as trees, powerlines, bushes, patio furniture, etc. early Monday afternoon in places across north Georgia. <br /> <br /> See links to outage maps for Jackson EMC, Habersham EMC and Georgia Power below. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />

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