A storm that pelted Rabun County Sunday afternoon resulted in heavy winds and rains, several downed trees and power outages around the county and surrounding areas.
Rabun County Road Director Scott Provance said several trees were down, some in power lines and some that were not, and his crews worked to clean up the roadways. Provance said other than trees, there was no road damage.
Damage occurred in different areas of the county, including Bridge Creek Road and Sky Valley.
Thousands of customers with Georgia Power and Habersham EMC lost power during the storm.
“Georgia Power completed repairs late Monday night for almost all remaining customers affected by Sunday’s extreme weather. Well over half the total affected were restored in the first 12-14 hours following the storm. Cumulatively, we have now restored power to more than 315,000 customers affected by the storm system that crossed Georgia Sunday night,” said Chad Nation, Georgia Power spokesperson, in an email Tuesday.
“Georgia Power’s smart grid and automated systems go to work immediately when outages first occur, rerouting power around damaged areas and restoring power to the largest number of customers possible, often before the storm has even passed. When safe to do so, our dedicated damage assessment teams, engineers, tree and line crews are in the field clearing fallen trees, replacing broken poles and repairing downed wires and equipment,” Nation said.
As of The Clayton Tribune press time, Habersham EMC was continuing to provide updates to customers about outages and estimated power restoration times. It experienced widespread outages due to the severe storms that moved through the area, according to the business’ Facebook page.
Habersham EMC had to replace numerous broken poles and restore power to hundreds of customers, according to its social media page updates. In some areas such as Habersham County, White County, and Lumpkin County, Habersham EMC had to call additional crews from Grady EMC; Satilla EMC; Canoochee EMC; Irwin EMC; and Aiken EMC into the field to help restore power to members, according to a social media post.
Rabun County EMA Director Brian Panell said there were no reported injuries during the storm.
Panell encourages everyone to sign up for CODE RED alerts which provide important safety updates to the community.
Anyone can sign up by visiting https://rabuncounty.ga.gov/ and clicking on “Code Red Signup” under the “Resources” tab on the home page.
Important safety resources can also be found by visiting https://rabuncounty.ga.gov/ema/page/ema-resources