2,000+ still without power in northeast Georgia after winter storm

RABUN COUNTY, Ga. — The corner of northeast Georgia is still waiting for a full return of power Wednesday morning, days after a winter storm significantly impacted the region.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, Georgia Power shows nearly 700 households in Rabun County still lack power, while Habersham EMC shows about another 100 outages in Rabun County. The Habersham EMC outage map also shows more than 700 in White County, 465 in Habersham County, 146 in Lumpkin County and 248 classified as “unassigned.”

In all, that leaves more than 2,300 households still without power as temperatures have been in the 20s and below, though a warm-up into the 40s is expected later Wednesday.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday morning, Habersham EMC said around 6:30 a.m. that its crews “made significant progress overnight and will continue working throughout the day.”

“Our goal is to have full restoration completed by this evening,” the post said. “As a reminder, our smart metering system allows us to see every single outage in real time, and crews are assigned accordingly. This is likely the worst ice storm in HEMC history. We are incredibly proud of our hardworking crews and team members, and deeply grateful for the continued support and patience of our community.”

Georgia Power also published a Facebook post from Clayton, the county seat of Rabun, on Tuesday and said its crews were “still working nonstop in the areas hardest hit” by the winter storm.

“Same energy, same passion, from the start of the storm until the very last customer is restored,” the post said. “Every customer matters. Every outage matters. Every Georgian matters.”

The main issue in northeast Georgia was the significant ice accumulation bringing trees down, and in turn knocking out power lines.