A second round of storms that hammered North Georgia on Friday evening left recovering residents with even more damage.
As the rain poured, parts of metro Atlanta started to flood. A flash flood warning was in place until just past midnight Saturday for several counties including Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton, Gwinnett, and Henry. Strong showers brought up to 1½ inches of rainfall, causing small creeks and streams to overflow and highways and roads to go slightly underwater.
Heavy storms came after a day of punishing heat, with feels-like temperatures climbing into the 104-degree range. Less than 24 hours prior to Friday’s storms, parts of North and Middle Georgia were ravaged by powerful winds and substantial rainfall that toppled trees and powerlines.
Georgia Power restored electricity to more than 200,000 residents across the state after Thursday’s storms. By Saturday morning, Georgia Power and Georgia EMCs reported that a total of about 40,000 remained without electricity.
“As severe weather continues into the night, our crews are still actively working in the field safely and as quickly as possible to restore power,” Georgia Power said Friday evening.
The Fulton County Jail was just one location where power was lost during the storms, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Natalie Ammons confirmed. Electricity was restored a few hours later.
“A tree fell on a propane tank, so that is how it affected the building because it lost power,” Ammons said. “It was the effects of the propane tank leaking that affected the power to the building.”
The considerable rainfall caused several places to flood, including the Fulton County Animal Services facility in Midtown. Officials are urging locals to adopt or bring a pet home at least until issues are resolved.
“If you can bring a dog home temporarily, even just for the night, please visit LifeLine Midtown,” authorities said, adding that the facility located at 981 Howell Mill Road opened at 8 a.m. Saturday.
Several roads in Midtown also went underwater, causing vehicles to become trapped and others to travel at slow speeds to prevent from hydroplaning.
Other counties are dealing with road closures due to trees uprooting and overturning. Officials in Forsyth County reported at least 13 road closures. Large trees in DeKalb County and Cherokee County also came toppling down.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
In addition to the severe thunderstorms, a heat advisory was in effect until 8 p.m. Friday for counties to the south and east of the metro area, where feels-like temperatures were projected to reach up to 108 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Areas closer to Florida were under an excessive heat warning until 9 p.m. as temperatures there were expected to climb to 112 degrees.
The oppressive heat and severe weather were driven by high-pressure atmospheric conditions in the southwestern part of the country that created a dome effect, trapping vast areas of sweltering heat that sometimes prevent rain and clouds that could bring relief in those areas.
Georgia, however, was on the outskirts of that dome in what is called “the ring of fire — the ring meaning the clockwise wind flow around the high-pressure. Fire, meaning the thunderstorms that form on the outskirts of this high pressure,” Channel 2 meteorologist Ashley Kramlich said Friday morning.
“So not only are we getting the heat from this area of high pressure, but we’re also getting the storms because we’re just so far away from the high pressure that we are in that threat area where we get that potential for some strong to severe storms like what we saw yesterday,” she said.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
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