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A road crew clears a tree across Payne's Creek road in Hart County Thursday morning.
Strong wind gusts from Tropical Storm Zeta have downed trees and knocked out power for some residents, but has mostly spared Hart County as it blows through Northeast Georgia.
As of 8 a.m. Thursday, Hart EMC reported 1,706 customers without power in Hart County and Georgia Power reported 201 in Hart County.
Hart County administrator said trees have fallen and continue to around the county, but that most are cleared quickly.
“All major roads are clear,” Partain said shortly before 8 a.m. “We had road crews ready.”
Statewide, Georgia Power was reporting 4,000 active power outages that were affecting 611,575 customers as of 8 a.m. Hart EMC was reporting 10,816 outages systemwide in Hart, Franklin, Elbert, Madison, Stephens and Banks counties.
The Hart County Charter System closed schools on Thursday in anticipation of the wind gusts as high as 45 mph from Zeta during what would have been the morning bus pickups.
Forecasters expect the storm to have passed by Thursday afternoon.