Residents of some metro Atlanta neighborhoods awoke Wednesday to a mess of downed trees, power lines and other storm debris after severe thunderstorms swept through north Georgia Tuesday night, and forecasters are predicting the possibility of more storms later in the day.
One of the areas hit hardest by the line of storms that moved southward through metro Atlanta just after dusk Tuesday was in west Cobb County.
Numerous trees were blown down in the Battle Ridge subdivision off Burnt Hickory Road just west of Marietta. One of those trees fell onto a house on Caisson Drive after snapping off at the base of its trunk.
Just down the street, Ron and Brenda Eubanks had two homes heavily damaged by Tuesday night’s storm, a two-story house they moved into 40 years ago and a year-old motor home parked in their driveway.
They were sitting in the living room of their house on Caisson Drive when, “we heard the train sound,” Brenda Eubanks said.
“It was so quick,” Ron Eubanks told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We were in our living room, and we sort of heard a roar.
“My wife and I didn’t say a word to each other. We jumped up and grabbed the dog and took about five steps and got to the basement door and opened it and boom.”
A large sweet gum tree had snapped off about 20 feet from the ground and crashed into the roof, but the storm “was over just like that,” Ron Eubanks said.
They went outside to find that other trees had “speared” the roof of the motor home the couple bought just last year, he said.
On nearby Stilesboro Road, one person was injured when one of the more than 20 trees toppled by the storm’s high winds fell onto a home, Channel 2 Action News reported.
In Atlanta, a tree was blown down onto a house on Argonne Avenue near Piedmont Park, the National Weather Service reported, while in DeKalb County, at least 20 trees were down, according to the county’s 911 center.
Trees were also toppled in Roswell and across Cherokee County.
The Gwinnett County Fire Department also reported several trees that fell during the storm, including one on a home on Telfair Court in Suwanee. No injuries were reported, although trees reportedly fell onto Kilgore Road in Buford and Meadow Ridge Drive in Duluth, downing power lines.
“We are fortunate that the storms impact was minimal and that our residents are safe,” Gwinnett Fire Captain Tommy Rutledge said in a press release.
Georgia Power crews were still working Wednesday morning to restore electricity to about 2,300 of the nearly 30,000 customers who lost power during the storms.
Channel 2 meteorologist Karen Minton said more storms could fire up Wednesday afternoon, when there’s a “marginal” risk of severe storms from metro Atlanta southward.
“Some of these storms that do pop up this afternoon may have damaging winds and some hail and a lot of lightning,” Minton said early Wednesday. However, she said, the storms will be most isolated, and “most of us will not get that action today.”
Minton said the chance of rain Wednesday is 30 percent, with the greatest risk of thunderstorms being along and south of I-20.
Thursday and Friday should be mostly sunny and dry, but a 30 percent chance of rain returns to Minton’s forecast for Saturday and Sunday.
Afternoon highs will be in the low to mid-90s through the weekend, with morning lows in the mid-70s, she said.
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