Downed trees, outages in metro area

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The messy weather is causing big problems for metro Atlanta, including a 30-year resident of a home in Decatur, where a combination of high winds and wet grounds played a part in a large tree crashing through his bedroom Wednesday morning.

Several Channel 2 Action News reporters spent the morning checking out downed trees and outages amid a wind advisory issued until noon for the metro area. Severe Weather Team 2 meteorologists David Chandley and Karen Minton say, so far, the strongest winds they've seen were near Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where wind gusts were up to 51 mph.

As of noon, more than 17,000 customers in the metro area had lost power, Georgia Power officials said.

Residents in Coweta, Fayette and Henry were among the dozens that reported howling winds causing a scare Wednesday morning. Longtime Decatur resident Sam Gadson told Channel 2's Wendy Corona he was frightened by the tree that fell onto his home on Wallingford Drive. The incident happened around 5 a.m.

"It startled me. I jumped up; ran into my son's room and tried to see what happened with him," Gadson said.

He was able to move his special needs son to the ground level of the home for safety's sake. Now Gadson's trying to get the tree removed.

A Gwinnett family told Channel 2's Sophia Choi that they were grateful their kids had already left for school when a tree fell onto their home on Brownlee Road.

There were no reports of injuries resulting from the weather.

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WSBTV