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Photo courtesy of Jenifer Kulow. Megan Broome/The Clayton Tribune. Highway 76 East was shut down for six hours due to trees and power lines being down following Monday's overnight storm.
Heavy storms overnight brought downed trees and power outages across Rabun County and surrounding areas.
As of 9:30 a.m. Monday, there were 2,380 Georgia Power customers without power, according to Chad Nation, Georgia Power spokesman. 505 Habersham EMC customers are also without power in Rabun County.
Nation said that it uncertain when power will be restored.
"At the moment, we don't have an exact time for repair," Nation said. "We have crews working to restore power as safely and quickly as possible whenever weather conditions will permit."
Nation said Georgia Power offers safety tips for customers. He said customers are encouraged to stay away from downed power lines, and never remove trees or limbs from power lines and roadways.
"Allow trained professionals to do so," Nation said.
As of 9 a.m. Monday, approximately 71,000 Georgia Power customers are without power, according to a statement from Georgia State Patrol.
"Georgia Power customers are experiencing widespread outages across the state due to high winds. Georgia Power will continue to monitor and deploy repair crews as necessary, throughout the morning," according to a statement from Georgia Power.
Customers can monitor Georgia Power's Online Outage map for details and updated information as restoration efforts continue. Visit the map at https://outagemap.georgiapower.com/external/default.html/
To receive outage updates directly from Georgia Power, customers can sign up to receive outage alerts by following this link.
Georgia Power will provide outage updates as soon as they are available, according to the statement.
Check out The Clayton Tribune's Facebook page for updates and this week's edition of the paper for full storm coverage.