Atlanta weather: More than 88,000 Georgians without power

Tomorrow: Mostly sunny. High: 86

» For a detailed forecast, visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weather page.

A category 1 hurricane that hit the Florida coast early Friday and led to a state of emergency in 56 South Georgia counties has had little impact aside from showers in metro Atlanta.

Expect that to continue throughout the day Friday, according to Channel 2 Action News.

There will be few breaks in daylong cloud cover, and isolated showers will be off and on through Friday evening.

The metro area could get wind gusts up to 25 mph, a far cry from the the 80-mph wind speeds and 19,000 power outages earlier reported in South Georgia.

Georgia Power has been working since Thursday evening to restore power to residents across the state affected by storm damage.

“Wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour are impeding restoration progress as Tropical Storm Hermine leaves the state,” Georgia Power officials said in a release. “Georgia Power crews are in place, assessing damage and restoring power as quickly and safely as possible. Restoration efforts will accelerate throughout the evening as weather conditions continue to improve.”

The company has restored power to an estimated 115,000 customers since Thursday evening.

There were more than 88,000 customers about 5 p.m. Friday without power in Georgia and more than 1,600 individual cases of damage, including broken poles and lines. Most of the damage and outages are concentrated in coastal and South Georgia.

Glen Sachtleben, division director of a regional FEMA response center, oversees a team that tracks the storm’s progress, the number of people in storm shelters and storm damage from a center in DeKalb County.

“At this point, again we’re simply monitoring the storm,” he said.

Weather conditions are expected to improve in metro Atlanta heading into the Labor Day weekend.

“Saturday looks great, lots of sunshine, lower humidity,” Channel 2 meteorologist Karen Minton said.

There is a 60 percent chance of rain Friday, but that rain chance could disappear as Tropical Storm Hermine moved into South Carolina by 2 p.m. Friday.

Highs are expected to reach 86 degrees Saturday, 88 degrees Sunday and 91 degrees Monday.

Temperatures were 78 degrees in Atlanta, 77 in Blairsville and 80 in Griffin just before 7 p.m.