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Bookend storms disrupt power
Winds to blame for most damage
Downed tree
A tree leans against power lines Monday morning on Lan Mar Road in northeastern Forsyth County. Power service had been restored throughout most of Forsyth County by Tuesday, a day after stormy weather made for a difficult start to the week. - photo by Jennifer Sami

Power service had been restored throughout most of Forsyth County by Tuesday, a day after stormy weather made for a difficult start to the week.

“We were expecting some winds, but nothing of the magnitude we saw,” Sawnee EMC spokesman Blake House said Tuesday. “It caught everyone off guard.

"At the height of the storm, we saw about 10,000 people affected, the majority of which were in Forsyth County.”

House said Monday’s 50-mph gusts, coupled with the saturated ground "makes trees pretty susceptible to falling over and hitting power lines, which is what happened.”

About 3,000 Georgia Power customers reported outages in Forsyth, said spokeswoman Konswello Monroe.

Statewide, about 250,000 customers were without service during the height of the storm. By Tuesday morning, some 35,000 were still without service.

“We’re hoping to have the majority of those customers back on later tonight,” Monroe said Tuesday morning.

The weekend began in much the same fashion Friday night,  when Monroe said Georgia Power “had 100,000 customers out.”

“When you’re dealing with this type of season and storms, it’s possible that you can have outages of this magnitude,” she said.

There were more than outages reported Friday, especially from the Bay Colony subdivision, which Forsyth County Fire Capt. Jason Shivers said was hard hit by the storm.

“There were a number of homes that were affected by damage from trees and many boat docks and boats have been damaged or destroyed,” Shivers said. “That entire cove was destroyed.”

The county was under three separate tornado warnings Friday. Though no tornados were reported, Shivers said there was severe weather.

“We had more incidents [Monday], but they weren’t as severe as what we responded to Friday,” he said.

Between 8:30 and 11 a.m. Monday, the Forsyth County 911 Center received 167 emergency calls, most of which were weather related.  There were 12 calls to 911 during the same time period Sunday.

The fire department responded to 34 incidents Monday, Shivers. Reports included trees falling onto power lines and homes.

“There were a few families that incurred some substantial damage to their homes from trees falling on them,” he said.

Sheriff’s Capt. Frank Huggins said deputies and emergency personnel responded to 41 reports of trees on power lines and 46 reports of trees blocking roads.

“Fortunately during this period there were no serious automobile accidents,” Huggins said. “Things settled down after the storm and winds blew through.”


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CUMMING WEATHER