Recovery efforts remained underway early Friday afternoon after a severe thunderstorm swept through northeast Georgia Thursday evening.
The storm left thousands of residents throughout the area without power. It also downed trees, limbs and power lines during the process.
Meteorologist Ryan Willis with the National Weather Service Peachtree City Office said the area experienced straight line winds with wind gusts between 50 and 70 mph. There have been no confirmed reports of a tornado touchdown in northeast Georgia, per Willis.
According to Hall County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director Zach Brackett, about 50 trees were knocked down across Hall County.
Brackett said the south end of Hall County experienced the most damage from the storm.
The Forsyth County area was also heavily impacted by the storm. The county's Department of Water & Sewer temporarily lost the ability to produce water at its water plant Thursday evening after losing power. Power at the facility was restored early Friday afternoon.
Forsyth County has asked residents to conserve water until noon Saturday as they work to replenish water resources at the facility.
While many of the power outages in the area have been resolved, linemen are still working to restore power to many homes and businesses in the region.
Outage numbers in the region as of 4:45 p.m. Friday were as follows:
- Jackson EMC reported a little over 2430 customers were still without power.
- Sawnee EMC said 7951 of its customers did not have power
- Georgia Power reported 5537 customers in Forsyth County, 180 in Hall County, 551 in Lumpkin County, 947 in Jackson County, and 3125 in Gwinnett County were without power.
Members of the public should take care while emergency repairs are underway. Avoid downed power lines, and keep in mind that downed trees and limbs may be entangled with live power lines.
April Sorrows, vice president of communication at Jackson EMC, said linemen worked through the night and are continuing to work to make repairs.
Willis said another round of thunderstorms is possible in the area Friday evening, with the possibility of strong winds.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2023/7/1195235/hall-county-sees-damage-from-severe-thunderstorm-3