A Georgia Power lineman repairs electrical lines that were damaged when a tree fell on them along VFW Road near Ethicon. (Daniel Purcell/Now Habersham)
Georgia Power crews have restored electricity to more than 2,400 customers in Cornelia who were left in the dark late Halloween night.
Four outages knocked out electricity to homes and businesses stretching from Tower Mountain to the Goodwill store on Historic U.S. 441/GA 105.
Traffic lights went dark. A Cornelia Police officer shined his lights while patrolling outside Walmart. The 24-hour store, which usually only closes on Christmas, was forced to shut down due to the outage.
Georgia Power area manager Brent Edwards says there was an equipment failure at the Cornelia substation. Utility crews also spent the pre-dawn hours Friday clearing trees from power lines.
Torrential rains and gusty winds swept through Habersham and surrounding counties on Thursday afternoon. Long after the storm passed trees were still falling in the soaked soil.
Full service was restored by 3 a.m. as Georgia Power worked to clear up the last few remaining outages statewide.
Habersham EMC crews also worked late into the night to restore power to several hundred customers in Habersham, Rabun, and White. The local cooperative also reported a few minor scattered outages in Lumpkin and Hall.
