Much of Carrollton is without power after severe storms produced winds that took down major power lines across the city. Official have not yet confirmed whether or not a tornado was responsible for the damage.
“We can’t confirm at this time that a tornado touched down—we won’t know for sure until the National Weather Service comes out and does an assessment,” said Carroll County Emergency Management Association Director Tim Padgett. “From what we can tell, there was some kind of weather event that occurred that did some major damage.”
Padgett said a number of local roadways are blocked due to downed trees and power lines.
“The worst of it looks like it was around Alabama Street and Highway 27 back to Brumbelow Road,” said Padgett. “We also saw a lot of damage off Newnan Road. The majority of damage seems to be concentrated around UWG.”
“We are fortunate that no one was injured by today’s storm. The winds knocked down some trees on the northwest side of campus and damaged the fence at Cole Field,” said UWG Director of Strategic Communications Gary Leftwich. “At this point, classes have not been cancelled. Some students might have difficulty making it to class because of the downed trees or other obstacles. We ask that everyone use their own judgement in determining if they feel safe traveling on campus.”
Carroll EMC reports a total of 6,735 residents are currently without power throughout Carroll County.
“We had one of our transmittion lines go out near out Tisinger substation,” said Kelly Hester, communications coordinator. “Our transmission lines are one of the bigger lines that we use to distribute power from. Having that line go down has caused three substations to be without power—Tisinger, Oak Mountain, and Clem.”
Hubbard said Highway 166 is currently closed near Old Camp Church Road due to a power line downed across the road.
“We are getting lots of reports of downed power lines all over the place,” said Hester. “If people see a downed line, they need to stay away from it because it could still be dangerous.”
Hubbard said to follow the Carroll EMC Facebook page for more updates on power outages.
