Hurricane Irma: 'DeKalb Bore The Brunt,' County CEO Says

DECATUR, GA -- Work crews in DeKalb County continue to remove trees and reopen roadways, days after the remnants of Hurricane Irma caused trees to topple and widespread power outages in the area. Since the day of the storm, crews have cleared more than 130 tons of debris, including 180 trees, and reopened more than 75 roads, the county said. More than 100 roads have reopened since the storm, DeKalb said Friday in a news release.

Power crews hope to have electricity back for most of the metro area this weekend, utilities have vowed. Georgia Power said that it was on track to have power on for 95 percent of the state by Saturday night. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

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No area in metro Atlanta was hit harder than DeKalb, which saw the largest numbers of roads closed and power outages.

“DeKalb bore the brunt of Irma’s wrath in the metro area, and we saw a lot of trees fall across power lines and roads,” said DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond. “We have been able to make a lot of progress clearing the roads, but substantial work remains. We are working diligently alongside Georgia Power to return the county back to normal.”

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“Working to restore DeKalb to normal takes the partnership and dedication of many agencies,” Thurmond said Friday. "Georgia Power and its contractors assisting the power restoration effort are instrumental in recovery, but we could not make this progress without the other resources that stepped in.”

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Georgia Power shared a restoration table on Twitter that showed that much of DeKalb County would be back up and running by Friday night.

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, only 20 roads are closed throughout DeKalb and 112 trees, most of them entangled in wires, have yet to be removed, the county said.

Image via DeKalb County