Heavy rain and high winds early Wednesday pounded metro Atlanta, prompted flood watches and wind advisories, left thousands without power, and led to downed trees, multiple crashes and other road problems.
In Atlanta, firefighters rescued a man who became trapped in his bed after a large oak tree fell on his home. In Cherokee and Cobb counties, a line of showers caused crashes and standing water on roads. And in Gwinnett County, another tree slammed into the living room of a home on Hillwood Drive. But the family, sleep in another portion of the house, wasn’t hurt.
Beyond those and other isolated incidents, a deadly storm system that spawned tornadoes in Gulf Coast states caused little disruption to the morning commute and largely spared Georgia.
Shortly after 10:30 a.m., a flash flood watch for metro Atlanta had been canceled, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz said. And by 11 a.m., Georgia Power had restored power to most of the more than 6,000 metro residents who reported outages shortly before dawn.
“The showers now are not as intense,” Channel 2 meteorologist Karen Minton said at noon.
But the metro area isn’t completely in the clear and remains under a wind advisory.
“Winds are going to be strong today,” Minton said.
A terrifying morning
For Quabatis and John Jones, it was a terrifying Wednesday.
They were asleep in their bed when that large oak tree fell on their northwest Atlanta home in the 1800 block of Madrona Street.
John Jones pushed his wife to safety.
“All that stuff fell, and the bed sunk that way, and the floor caved in,” Quabatis Jones said. “And he helped push me up so I could get out.”
But John Jones could not save himself.
When Atlanta fire crews got to the scene, John Jones “was pinned by the oak tree and by the roofing material that collapsed down on top of the gentleman when he was in his bed,” Atlanta fire spokesman Cortez Stafford said.
They had to shore up part of the floor from the basement and some of the roof to protect the firefighters and John Jones.
“We were able to treat the patient when we got there,” Stafford said. “The problem is that we could only put a limited amount of guys in the home at the time. When we initially got here, it was a great risk of the tree and the floor collapsing further down.”
Firefighters, using about 30 rescue workers, were eventually able to rescue John Jones.
He has a severe leg injury, but is expected to survive, Stafford said.
Standing water, washed out roads
The Atlanta rescue was one of few incidents of trees down and road problems as a result of overnight storms in the metro area.
Storms washed out sections of roads in Cherokee County at Fincher Road and Mt. Carmel Church Lane, according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.
Crews worked to repair the road, Channel 2 said. They haven’t said yet when the road will reopen.
Standing water drenched portions of I-20 eastbound before Fulton Industrial Boulevard and I-75 southbound below Windy Hill Road, the Traffic Center reported.
What’s next?
A high wind warning will remain in effect through 1 a.m. Thursday for portions north of Blairsville, and a wind advisory is in effect for metro Atlanta through the same time period.
“We have strong gusts with the squall line moving through this morning,” Minton said. “Even after the front passes through, we could have winds gusting up to 40 mph. A very windy afternoon for us.”
Those strong winds should begin to subside by 8 or 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, the north Georgia mountains may see some snow flurries, Minton said.
“But not here in the metro area,” she said. “We’ll start to see some clearing skies, temperatures gradually dropping throughout the day.”
Temperatures were 58 degrees in Atlanta, 57 degrees in Blairsville and 57 degrees in Griffin just before noon.
Minton said temperatures will “fall through the 50s and the 40s in the afternoon/evening time to the 30s by tomorrow morning and sunny skies will take us into the mid-60s by Sunday afternoon.”
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