Even as the ice storm melted away Thursday, tens of thousands of residents were still without power on the Southside of metro Atlanta, struggling with spoiling food, restless children and fleeting patience.
The Southside, in particular large swaths of south Fulton and Clayton counties, received a decidedly heavier dose of misery from the storm that some dubbed the Son of SnowJam 2014.
As of 4 p.m., Georgia Power’s tally showed that 162,000 customers in what it calls the “metro south” area had lost power at some point during the storm. Of those, 41,000 still didn’t have power, according to Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft. Areas included in the count are Clayton, Coweta, Fayette, Henry, Butts, and south Fulton.
Kraft said areas south of Atlanta, along with Augusta, suffered the most outages because they had the heaviest icing, which caused tree limbs or falling trees to break power lines or short them out. Areas just a few miles to the north, where it was a few degrees colder, got more snow, which is lighter than ice.
Clayton alone had 10 broken utility poles, which require five hours a piece to fix. The county’s troubles were compounded when felled trees prompted power interruptions at 21 substations.
“That’s the root of the problem,” said Daryl Brown, the company’s metro south regional manager.
By Thursday, people were pretty fed up with living in survival mode in cold, darkened homes, while communities elsewhere were already back on line.
“My bones lock up and neck locks when its cold,” said Karen-Brandee Williams, who has a joint problems and had been without power since 6 a.m. Wednesday.
She worried that Georgia Power had overlooked her, because the utility’s website showed that power had been restored to her Forest Park neighborhood. She stayed under the covers of her bed to stay warm, wearing a hat and layers of clothing under a jogging suit.
“I just want to make sure we’re not an oversight,” she said.
Teresa Dotson of Riverdale suspected some mischief was delaying the return of power.
“Sometime people want to stretch the work out,” she said.
After 24 hours without power, and with his kids getting restless, and nary a utility truck in sight in his Clayton neighborhood, Demetrius Collins was blunt: “It’s like they aren’t even trying around here.”
But Kraft said the company is doing everything possible to fix the outages.
“We have responded and shifted our resources to address the areas that are hardest hit by the weather to get all of our customers online as quickly and safely as we can,” he said.
Kraft said the company had crews spread across metro Atlanta and the rest of the state ahead of the storm, but began shifting crews south of the city when it became clear the outages were concentrated there.
“There was no way to tell exactly what type of precipitation would fall where,” he said. “Since the storm hit, we’re calling in even more resources.”
Kraft couldn’t say how soon everyone’s power would be restored. “It’s not a nice situation to be enduring, and we understand that,” he said.
Thursday played cruel tricks on some south side residents, promising relief but bringing more discomfort.
The ice storm snatched power from Kenny Ruffin’s Riverdale home Wednesday morning. It came back on at 1:30 a.m. Thursday, and, just as they were preparing to fix their first hot meal in days, it died again at 8 a.m.
His next plan: Buy a generator.
Michael Harris thought he was going to make it through the storm unscathed. But he heard a loud thump in his yard early Thursday morning. A tree limb had collapsed, yanking loose a power line draped across his property in southwest Atlanta.
“I was praying and thanking God we made it through, but then I heard that thump,” he said.
Well into Day 2 without power at the Tobler home in Jonesboro, food was spoiling and, with the sun coming out, temperatures felt colder in the house than outside.
“It’s pretty cold,” said Chris Tobler.
Many households seemed to travel back in time overnight, gaining light from candles and heat from fireplaces and bundles of blankets. Outside, traffic lights were out, stores and gas stations were shuttered, a few people shuffled along largely barren streets.
Still families found ways to be, well, families. Hours without electricity bored the kids, but it also gave Dotson’s family time to talk.
“We had some time to talk about relationships,” she said. “We usually don’t have time to talk because we all live busy lives.”
John Woodward and his wife made the best of being home with their four children, whose ages range from 10 to 13.
“We’ve been playing board games … doing a little Bible study now, trying to spend some quality time together,” he said. “This is time with us that I think they’ve appreciated.”
Meanwhile, neighbors found ways to once again be neighborly.
Clifford James, one of Dotson’s neighbors, was using a chainsaw to go at a downed tree that weighed down a power line. He gave the wood to a neighbor to build a fire.
A Clayton gas station had opened up but didn’t have power. A stream of people trudged in to buy chips, drinks, cigarettes and cookies.
As the ice melted, traffic picked up in Riverdale. Before long, the parking lot at Wal-Mart was full.
In other parts of the metro area, too, sunshine drew people from their cocoons.
Casey Reynolds was tired of being cooped up. She and her dog Samson went out gambolling around Piedmont Park, where a lot of dog owners seemed happy to be walking — and walking and walking — their pets.
“He needed to get out,” Reynolds said of Samson, who was taking full advantage of the large dog park. “He was starting to complain.”
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