UPDATE (Jan. 18@8pm) – Georgia’s electric providers are making significant progress in restoring power to homes and businesses left in the dark by this weekend’s winter storm. As of late Tuesday, there were fewer than 1,000 EMC members and Georgia Power customers still without electricity, the vast majority of them in Habersham and Rabun counties. That’s down significantly from the 14,000 the were without power late Monday.
Habersham EMC says it still expects to have power fully restored to its members who can receive power by late tonight, January 18. Georgia Power previously estimated it would be Wednesday before full service was restored to its customers in Rabun County.
Crews have been working non-stop since Winter Storm Izzy blew through Georgia, leaving a path of destruction from high winds, heavy snow accumulations, and ice.
“We will continue working through the night until every member is restored,” HEMC said in its evening member update.
The local cooperative serves over 26,000 members in Habersham, Hall, Lumpkin, Rabun, Stephens, and White counties. HEMC brought in crews from 17 other co-ops to assist with its restoration efforts, evidence of just how hard Izzy hit this northeast corner of the state. The storm system dumped upwards of eight inches on the higher elevations of Habersham and Rabun counties, and more snow may be on the way.
Forecasters are keeping a close eye on a weather system forming to the west.
“The models have shown a couple of solutions. One of them is for the snow to come in as early as Friday, but other modeling has shown a delayed onset until Saturday into Sunday,” says Now Habersham’s Tyler Penland. “Either scenario would likely bring snowfall back to North Georgia, and there certainly seems to be potential for some big totals.”
Wintry blast
While snow lovers may delight at the thought of another winter storm, public safety, public works, and utility crews are already battling exhaustion as they work to clean up the mess left by Winter Storm Izzy.
The storm moved into Northeast Georgia before dawn Sunday, January 16, bringing with it blustery winds and fast-accumulating snow. Wind chills dipped into the low 20s and remained in the 20s throughout the day. Within hours, E-911 centers in Habersham County and across the region began fielding phone calls about trees down on powerlines as limbs broke under the weight of the snow aided by the gusty winds.
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State and local road crews continue to clear roads as they can, but recurring overnight freezes are making it difficult to shed the snowmelt and black ice. Icy road conditions still pose a potential hazard for drivers and the National Weather Service is again warning about the possibility of black ice Wednesday morning.
A number of Northeast Georgia school systems and some private schools have again called off classes on January 19 due to the road conditions and continued outages.
Now Habersham is closely monitoring the current conditions and developing weather situation and will bring you continuing updates throughout the week.
Check our weather page for the latest.
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Updated 1/18/22 @8pm
