With Fay on run, here comes sun

Remember the sun? It’s on the way back.

After several days of sogginess courtesy of Tropical Depression Fay, the forecast for today and Friday promises lots of blue skies and sunshine.

Highs will be in the upper 80s —- more typical of late August than the 70s and low 80s of recent days —- while Fay’s remnants trudged across the region.

A chance of showers returns for each day of the long Labor Day weekend, but the likelihood is only 20 percent Saturday and 30 percent Sunday and Monday. Highs will be about 90.

Meanwhile, weather officials on Wednesday confirmed that Fay spawned four tornadoes Tuesday in Hall County and one in Jackson County. The twisters were rated as F1, the lowest level.

The worst of the storms was near Commerce in Jackson County, where two people were reported hurt by twisters. High winds also downed trees in East Point and in Cherokee and Hall counties, and heavy rains prompted a mudslide on a bridge over the Chestatee River in Lumpkin County, officials said.

“Metro Atlanta and northeast Georgia just saw some trees down and power lines down and some isolated localized flooding,” said Buzz Weiss, a Georgia Emergency Management Agency spokesman.

Electricity has been restored to more than 4,000 Jackson EMC customers just north of Commerce who lost power Tuesday, said Bonnie Jones, a company spokeswoman.

The American Red Cross is aiding affected residents.

Hall County officials are assessing damage at Oakwood Elementary School in Oakwood and Lyman Hall Elementary School in Gainesville, where classes resumed Wednesday.

Tuesday’s storm caused gas leaks that prompted the evacuation of students from after-school programs at the schools, Gordon Higgins, a Hall County schools spokesman, confirmed.

About 200 trees fell in Hall County’s Murrayville area, weather officials said.