Winter Storm Remus is moving north along the east coast after sweeping across the south and midwest. The storm system dumped snow on the northern half of Georgia. Habersham County received around 3″.
Remus is the third winter storm to hit Habersham in less than two weeks.
The National Weather Service (NWS) in Greenville has downgraded its winter storm warning to an advisory for the extreme northeastern part of Georgia and the western Carolinas. Hazardous road conditions still exist.
Snow plows from the county and GA Department of Transportation are blading the roads and laying salt and gravel. Primary roads are “pretty clear” according to Habersham County Road Department Superintendent John Stamey. He says Habersham’s main roads are passable but still hazardous. He advises motorists to wait until closer to noon when temperatures rise before venturing out on the roads. If you must travel, use extreme caution.
Utility crews are working to restore power to nearly 3,000 customers. Scattered power outages were caused by fallen trees. Outages affected people in several north Georgia counties including Habersham, Rabun, White and Stephens Counties. As of 7am Thursday, 1,700 GA power customers in those counties were without power; fewer than 800 HEMC customers remained without power, down from 1,200 earlier in the morning.
Habersham Emergency Management Agency Director Lynn Smith says Habersham weathered the storm with few problems. “We’re good. Everybody stayed off the roads. Most of our roads are passable; secondary roads, not as well as primary. We’ve been able to get people back and forth to work,” Smith says. Emergency personnel are using four-wheel drives to help get employees to and from work at the hospital. Smith says there were a few wrecks in Habersham but, for the most part, the county came out of Winter Storm Remus unscathed thanks to a strong team effort by municipal and county employees. “Our road crews have done an outstanding job. Everybody just worked really well together and I appreciate all the hard work.”
