Hurricane Irma: Nearly 1,300 Still Without Electricity in DeKalb: Georgia Power

DECATUR, GA -- As metro Atlanta begins to come back to normalcy in the wake of the effects of Hurricane Irma, nearly 1,300 people remain without power in DeKalb County midday Wednesday, according to Georgia Power. The numbers have shrunk dramatically since Monday when more than 30,000 were in the dark around the county.

Georgia Power said that over the course of two days it had restored power to more than half a million customers. "We've restored power to more than 590,000 customers statewide in the last 24 hrs," the utility said on Twitter. (Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

SEE ALSO: 3 Dead, Million+ Without Power After Hurricane Irma Soaks Georgia

Georgia Power said Wednesday morning that about 360,000 of its customers still were without electricity. Georgia EMC, an electrical membership cooperative serving much of the state, reported another 232,000 people in the dark Wednesday morning.

DeKalb still had 1,290 outages, according to the power company's coverage map on its website. That number was expected to decline sharply as the day wore on. The map indicated that 56,887 customers had been affected and 317,748 had been served.

On Tuesday, DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond declared a local state of emergency in the wake of widespread damage from Irma. “DeKalb County has taken the brunt of the hit of Irma in metro Atlanta,” Thurmond said in a statement. “Our ability to recover as soon as possible depends on the hard work of our dedicated employees and the resources we receive.”

Crews could be seen working in cherry pickers and ladders around street corners and curbs around metro Atlanta, erecting new power lines and cutting away branches and wayward trees that had snapped.

Image via DeKalb County