Falling Trees and Ice Results in Massive Power Outages Overnight

The freezing rain and ice that was supposed to bypass Franklin and Hart Counties marched through late Monday afternoon and evening, leaving behind a trail of power outages, accidents, and downed trees.

Freezing rain began falling around 4p Monday afternoon and didn’t stop until after midnight.

Icing on the 92.1 transmitter tower knocked us off the air overnight through the morning hours as well.

The biggest problem overnight has been trees falling under the weight of the ice.

At one point, the power went out at the Franklin County Detention Center, but Franklin County Sheriff Stevie Thomas said their back up generator kicked in.

Hart EMC spokesman Keith Brown said over 5,500 customers lost power overnight.  Brown said his office has called in extra help to get people back on line.

“We got hit pretty hard,” he said this morning. “Our estimate is we have about 5,500 customers without power.  Our crews have been working through the night. I have been in touch with a contractor and other EMC’s  overnight and we’re currently waiting for them to come in and give us some additional help. It actually didn’t start falling apart until about 9p last night when it reached freezing.”

Brown said the hardest hit areas were in the northern part of Franklin County in the Gumlog area near Lavonia and in Stephens County.

“The Gumlog area seemed to be the worst, but now we’ve got it from the southern part of Elbert County to the northern part of Stephens County,” Brown said. “Before the night was over we pretty much had calls on every substation we have. It’s very widespread at this point.”

Brown said crews will be working throughout the day to get residential customers back online, but efforts have been hampered by trees that continued to fall overnight.

“When we sent crews out to Gumlog, they got stuck practically all night mainly along I-85 in Franklin County. So they’ve been stuck working in just a few miles all night. As soon as we get some additional help in here, we’re sending crews immediately to Gumlog area in addition to Elbert County.” 

Now Brown advises if you are a Hart EMC customer, just be patient, crews are working as quickly as they can.

Meantime, Georgia Power reports outages all along SR17 from Avalon to Lavonia and from Bowersville into Royston.

As of 7:30a about 84 customers were still without power.

Royston City Manager Ed Andrews tells WLHR News city crews are working to help those with medical conditions get their power restored first.