Habersham County E-911 dispatchers, emergency services personnel, and sheriff’s deputies spent several hours responding to storm-related calls Thursday.
A severe thunderstorm that triggered a Severe Thunderstorm Warning Thursday afternoon resulted in damage around Habersham County and inside Cornelia.
According to figures from Habersham County E-911/Emergency Management Agency, the county dealt with about three dozen calls ranging from complaints about non-functioning traffic signals to downed trees to wrecks and fires.
There also was one call reporting an individual who had been struck by lightning – possibly twice.
In all, there were a dozen calls involving downed power lines or transformer issues, 14 tree-related calls, three wrecks, and three incidents reported as possible fires.
On Garrison Road, just off Mud Creek Road outside Cornelia, no one was hurt when a vehicle struck a cluster of trees that had just fallen, blocking the road.
Habersham County Sheriff’s Office units kept traffic back while Habersham County Road Department personnel worked to clear the trees, ultimately using heavy equipment to remove them from the road.
Around that same time, crews were called to New Liberty Road outside Clarkesville, where downed utility lines and a broken pole presented a danger to motorists. Road department personnel closed the road in both directions to allow power pole replacement and line restoration. It took crews about five hours before the road was cleared at 10:30 p.m.
The only reported storm-related injury was a man outside Cornelia believed to be struck by lightning as the storm moved through.
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