Crews cut trees, clear roads after windstorm

Public works crews in both Whitfield and Murray counties worked through the night Thursday cutting trees off roads so utility companies could reach areas where power was knocked out when powerful wind storms blew through Northwest Georgia Thursday evening.

North Georgia Electric Membership Corp. (NGEMC) officials reported 8,700 customers still without power around 4 p.m. Friday afternoon, mostly in Whitfield, Murray, Walker and Catoosa counties.

“We had trees down on power lines and some trees down on houses,” said Dwayne Bain, director of the Emergency Management Agency in Murray County. “I did see up in the Fashion (community) area a tree that had crushed the cab on a pickup truck. There was a roof taken off of Pat’s Antiques downtown on Market Street, but other than that, just power lines and some trees.”

Bain said county crews worked throughout the night Thursday clearing the roadways where trees were down.

“It seemed more prevalent on the north end,” Bain said of the violent windstorm. “Then it worked its way through Eton and then Chatsworth, and then westward to the very southeast corner (of the county). Ramhurst didn’t seem to get anything.”

Dewayne Hunt of the Whitfield County Public Works department said his agency handled around 40 calls.

“It was mostly broken trees and debris in the roads,” he reported. “I didn’t see as many uprooted trees (as in past storms), but we had a lot of trees snap off. It’s all cleared up except for a couple places still pending where electrical lines are in the trees. The utility companies are working on those and should be getting completion sometime soon.”

Hunt said he saw “quite a bit” of damage to homes.

“Since we were just trying to get the corridors open I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to it,” he said. “But we did see a lot of damage to private property. There were no injuries that I’m aware of.”

Hunt said Wilson-Caldwell Road near Highway 71 and Red Clay Road almost into Tennessee was still blocked early Friday evening.

“There’s still some brush along the roads (in the county) because we just cut them up and put them in the ditch,” he said. “Next week we’ll have some cleanup details out.”

Jeff Brown, NGEMC vice president of operations and engineering, said power restoration efforts would continue through Friday night.

“As of 4 p.m., approximately 8,700 North Georgia EMC members are still without power after extremely high winds hit the area (Thursday) night,” he said. “The majority of outages are in Whitfield, Murray, Walker and Catoosa counties, with scattered outages in Chattooga, Gordon and Floyd counties. The outages are widely scattered, and crews are working to restore power to small groups or individuals. This makes the restoration effort challenging and time intensive.”

Brown said while it was anticipated many customers would have power by Saturday afternoon, some locations may remain without power until Sunday morning. Due to the high temperatures, NGEMC continues to encourage people to consider temporarily relocating until power has been restored.

Outages have been caused by numerous damaged poles spread over a wide area and lines in rural locations that are hard to reach, Brown said, adding crews have continued to work since the onset of the storm and “will remain on duty until all power is restored.”

NGEMC is being assisted by 14 crews from other utilities, and tree-trimming crews are also assisting in areas where fallen trees are blocking access.

“We are working to restore your power as quickly and safely as possible,” Brown said. “We thank you for your patience.”

The utility asked residents to stay away from downed lines and report them immediately to NGEMC or the local power company provider or call 911.

To report outages, email outage@ngemc.com or call NGEMC offices to reach 24-hour dispatch. During widespread outages, phone lines may be unavailable due to the high number of calls, officials said in a press release. Updates are posted at www.ngemc.com and on Facebook. The office phone number in Dalton is (706) 259-3394.

Georgia Power local manager Steve Anglea said initially the utility had 5,200 customers without power in the six-county coverage area of Whitfield, Murray, Gordon, Catoosa, Gilmer and Pickens counties.

“We’ve been going all (Thursday) night and all day,” he said after 6 p.m. on Friday. “We’re down to about 68 customers (without power) now, and those are mostly in isolated areas.”

Anglea said in most instances trees were the culprit in the downed electrical lines, but there had also been broken power poles and even metal roofs that had gotten tangled up in the wires.

Lori McDaniel of Dalton Utilities said as of 8 a.m. on Friday 50 customers out of 1,600 in Dalton proper were without power.

“We have restored power to all but eight customers who have issues on their side,” she said. “Power has been restored to the rest. We still have issues such as low hanging lines and broken poles but our crews are working to make repairs.”

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Crews cut trees, clear roads after windstorm

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