Tropical Storm Zeta made an appearance in Northwest Georgia in the predawn hours of Thursday morning.

Heavy winds and rain hit the area around 3:30 AM.  The storm was moving around 25 miles-per-hour and passed through the area quickly.  Many areas saw at least 2 inches of rain in a very short period of time.  While area creeks and rivers quickly filled, there was not a lot of flooding due to the storm passing through so rapidly.

Winds of up to 60 mph were reported across the area, which brought down a good many trees and sent public works crews from the county and municipalities into clean-up mode.

Power outages were reported across the county for both North Georgia EMC and Georgia Power customers.  WZQZ’s transmitters lost power around 7:30 AM.  We switched over to a generator shortly before 10 AM on 99.1 FM and were able to resume broadcasting.  Georgia Power restored power to both the AM and FM transmitter sites around 1:30 PM.

At one point, over 48,000 people in Northwest Georgia were without power due to Tropical Storm Zeta.