Deadly storms knock out power to thousands

Tomorrow: Mostly cloudy. High: 58

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

Parts of metro Atlanta may not have power again until late Wednesday after deadly storms ripped through North Georgia overnight, Georgia Power said.

About 6,363 of the 174,000 customers affected by Tuesday’s damaging winds, lightning, hail and heavy downpours are still without power, the utility said.

Customers in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties can expect power by 11:30 p.m., Georgia Power said.

Power outages and downed trees prompted Dalton, Dawson, Lumpkin and Whitfield public schools to push back start times Wednesday. Pickens County schools and the DeKalb County campus of Georgia Piedmont Technical College closed for the day.

There were no delays or school closings in metro Atlanta.

However, some schools in DeKalb were without power early Wednesday.

“But by the time school was ready to start,” district spokeswoman Eileen Houston-Stewart said, “the power had been restored.”

She said it was a busy morning.

"School contingency plans have been executed to ensure our students' needs are met, including meals, instruction, safety and teacher supervision," she said just after 3 p.m. "All power should be restored at DCSD schools by 11 p.m. tonight."  

Houston-Stewart said parents can contact their child’s local school for more information.

Also in DeKalb, a tree landed on a house on Tanner Drive. No one was injured in that incident.

Mendy Furlong, who has lived in the house in Scottdale for nearly 14 years, said she was reading a book in bed when she heard the tree crash into her home about 8 p.m.

Her house went dark, and she said she couldn’t get through to dispatchers when she tried to call 911.

She crawled through debris and found her way out of the home.

“This is a problem in this neighborhood,” she said. “We have a lot of trees with very little root system.”

She was in talks early Wednesday with her insurance company to try to get her home repaired.

While there were no fatalities reported in metro Atlanta, that was not the case in other parts of Georgia.

Homeowner Jason Lee Combs, 29, was killed after a large tree fell on a home along Ga. 332 in Jackson County.

Combs was inside a bedroom with his wife and children when the tree came crashing down, Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said. His wife and children were not injured.

According to Channel 2 Action News, the severe weather is gone.

Current temperatures are 57 degrees in Atlanta, 46 in Blairsville and 56 in Griffin.