NE Ga. Drying Out After Days of Rain

Stephens County Schools will be open on a normal schedule today.

However, Habersham County Schools are closed today.

That is as northeast Georgia tries to dry out after days of heavy rain.

From 7 a.m. Thursday all the way through now, downtown Toccoa received 7.54 inches of rain.

The rain, accompanied Sunday with winds, caused hundreds of trees to fall throughout the area and resulted in numerous power outages.

Georgia Power and Hart EMC both reported thousands of power outages in northeast Georgia Sunday, hundreds of those in Stephens County.

As of this morning in Stephens County, Hart EMC reported 8 outages and Georgia Power reported 7 outages.

Hart EMC is still reporting about 250 outages in Franklin County, while Georgia Power is reporting about 300 outages in Habersham County and another 300 or so outages in Banks County.

In addition, Habersham EMC was reporting just over 12,000 outages in its service area as of 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

Habersham EMC says outside crews are coming in to help restore power and all of its customers should have power restored sometime Tuesday.

Also in Habersham County, accessnorthga.com is reporting that Demorest water system customers who experienced an outage or low pressure on Sunday should boil water used for consumption or food preparation until further notice.

Accessnorthga.com quotes Demorest Mayor Rick Austin as saying that about half of Habersham County’s largest water system went dry by about 5 p.m. Sunday due to storm-related power outages.