Rain slows commute, brings scattered damage

Toppled trees, lightning strikes, fires, flooding and power outages were reported when powerful storms ripped through the metro area Sunday night and Monday morning.

Thunderstorms dumped more than two inches of rain in the area overnight, according to the National Weather Service. Those storms also produced damaging winds and that’s being blamed for widespread power outages and downed trees across the region.

Elissa Eubanks / eeubanks@ajc.com

Bernando Dugue, 53, from Doraville (in red) says he was on his way home from work when he got his car stuck on Hirsch Road in Tucker.

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Another storm system over eastern Alabama was moving into Georgia at mid-morning, bringing the possibility of more rain and thunderstorms to the southern suburbs and central Georgia.

Georgia Power reported there were 2,694 customers without power statewide heading into the lunch hour Monday. About 2,000 of those outages were in Atlanta with a concentration east of the city in Decatur and Tucker, officials said. That’s down from more than 6,000 overnight.

“Crews will be out there until everybody’s back on line,” Georgia Power spokesman Mark Williams said.

A house in Powder Springs was “destroyed” by a falling tree narrowly missed two children watching television. At least one other house in Poweder Springs had two trees fall through the roof.

Lightning strikes were reported at four homes in Gwinnett County, including one in Norcross that caused a fire and another that resulted in minor injuries to a woman in Loganville, according to Gwinnett fire officials.

“The woman was reportedly going outside and had just stepped-off the back porch when lightning hit nearby in the yard,” Gwinnett Fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge reported. “Paramedics transported the woman to the hospital for evaluation. She was conscious, aler, and breathing on arrival.”

Lightning sparked a fire at Callier Springs Country Club in Rome, according to the Rome News Tribune. A large tree fell on several vehicles on LaVista Road in Tucker, according to WAGA-TV. A fallen tree blocked the right lane I-20 West at Lee Road, according to the DOT.

“A lot of rain is being dumped in these storms,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Robert Beasley. “There will be some street flooding at the minimum.”

The weather is blamed for some modest delays at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The FAA was reporting arrival and departure delays of 15 minutes or less early Monday morning.

Katie Leslie contributed to this report.