Decatur Cleans Up From Storm

Decatur officials said most of the damage caused by a late Monday night storm had been cleaned up by late Tuesday afternoon.

David Junger, the Decatur assistant city manager for public works, said about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday that South Candler between Midway and Kirk roads was the last major road still blocked. Trees leaned on power lines there.

Other roads blocked earlier in the day included  East Howard from Trinity to Church streets, Lamont Drive, Winnona Drive and Drexel Road, and Knox Street at East Lake Drive.

At least two Decatur homes were badly damaged by falling trees, he said. 

The storm came with most schools closed for spring break. The College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center on South McDonough Street was closed Tuesday because of a power outage, but will be open Wednesday, according to the Decatur City Schools website.

Decatur authorities didn't know how many customers lost power in Decatur, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Georgia Power reported 118,000 outages around noon, including 50,000 in metro Atlanta. Many of the outages were east of Atlanta in DeKalb County towns such as Tucker, Lithonia and Stone Mountain.

No injuries were reported in Decatur, police said. Ajc.com reported six people were killed across the state, including a man in northwest Atlanta who was in a car crushed by a tree.

Several large trees on the Emory Law School campus were uprooted by high winds. Decatur police said most of the other downed trees in town were small and easily moved off the roadway. However, a large tree fell and damaged the Windstar van owned by James Brown of Maxwell Street.

Brown said he looked out the window and saw the tree in his front yard uprooted and leaning against another tree. He said he advised his next door neighbor to move his car but didn't have time to move his vehicle.

"As soon as I told him to move his car, the tree fell," Brown said.

Luckily, Brown said, he had a wreck recently and the insurance adjuster told him the van was a total loss. "Now it's really totalled," he said.

A falling tree was also blocking Knox Street in Oakhurst, on the west side of East Lake Drive. Lisa Preblick assessed the mess on Tuesday morning and said she felt fortunate that the oak tree, the biggest tree in her front yard, fell away from her house and also missed her neighbor's house.

Her son, Curtis McElhiney, lives in the house now and she said he didn't realize what happened at first.

"He said it got real quiet at first ... and then all of a sudden over the house he just heard this roaring."

In Avondale Estates, authorities reported no major damage or power outages on Tuesday morning.

The National Weather Service said strong winds are expected to remain over north and central Georgia through this evening. The high temperature is expected to reach 59 on Tuesday, compared to 83 on Monday. The high on Wednesday should be about 70.

Junger said Decatur residents who want to report non-emergency problems can call the Decatur Public Works Department at 404-377-5571.