ATLANTA — While most Georgians have gotten power back, outages are still impacting clusters of homes around metro Atlanta.
Mitchell Anderson told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco that it was night three without power at his home.
“Oh, it’s so cold,” he said. “No power, and it’s freezing.”
A tree collapsed in his northeast Atlanta neighborhood Sunday afternoon as the winter storm moved in.
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It pulled down power lines, and the lines were pulled so tight to the ground that wires were yanked out of the walls of homes.
“I heard this loud explosion, and I turned around, and there’s sparks raining down,” said Michael Kaufman. “I freaked out and ran upstairs to make sure everybody was okay.”
It destroyed breakers, the heating and air system and appliances.
“We’re very lucky to be alive and safe, and the house is still intact,” said Kaufman.
Outside, someone was trapped in a car. Kaufman’s SUV was damaged.
Once everyone was safe and the tree was gone, neighbors realized this was not going to be a quick fix.
”I thought, oh, they’re just going to put it back on, and it would be easy,” said Anderson. “But, it’s a complete reinstall of our power system.”
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He said electricians have to rewire his home. The city has to inspect that work. Then, Georgia Power can restore the power.
“We are just massively busy because I’m here at this location, and Jose is next door taking care of the same thing, but we are making sure that the customer is happy,” said David Montgomery.
He’s an electrician for TE Certified Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Cooling.
He said this month he has noticed more people losing power in unusual ways. An underground electrical fire damaged a subdivision in Lithonia. The same thing left thousands in the dark in Midtown Atlanta Monday night.
“I mean, yeah, they’re rare. They’re rare,” said Montgomery.
He said it could be Friday before every home in the Northeast neighborhood has power back on.
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