Newspaper Page Text
See Ice Storm Coverage On Pages 8-A, 9-A, 1-B
VOLUME CXIV — NUMBER I 1
Chattooga Recovering From Winter Storm,
Apprehensive About Forecasts For Weekend
Surprise Ice Blitz Paralyzes County Briefly, Cuts Off Utility Services For Thousands
By THE STAFF OF
THE SUMMERVILLE
NEWS
While recovering from a
surprise ice storm that slipped
into Chattooga County this past
weekend, residents were appre
hensive as they listened to mid
week forecasts that indicated
more freezing precipitation
dmight strike again as ealgy as Fri
ay.
See a related story else
where on Page 1-A about the var
ied and sometimes conflicting
weekend forecasts.
BLAST
Last weekend’s blast of cold
weather plus a mixture of sleet,
freezing rain and snow downed
trees, snapped power, telephone
and cable television lines and
poles, causing disruptions for
thousands of residents.
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FALLEN PINE TREES DOWN UTILITY LINES ON U.S. 27
Mess Takes Most Of Day For Crews To Repair
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BECKY JACKSON BUSY AT 911 CONSOLES MONDAY
. s
Crews Worn Out Answering Many Non-Essential Calls
Floyd Dies In Wreck
Oak Hill Road Mishap Claims Life Saturday
Ale'.erly man was killed Sat
urday when the vehicle which he
was driving hit a utili% pole.
Charles Lamar o¥d was
traveling west on Oak Hill Road
and traveled off the north edge
of the road, traveling approxi
mately 108 feet striking a ditch.
After smkxgg the ditch, the ve
hicle traveled approximately 111
additional feet, tumin& broad
side and strikirag a utility pole
with the right side of the vehicle,
The Summeruille Neu
It wasn’t the ice storm of
1960 or the blizzard of 1993.
However, it was severe
enough to close downtown Sum
merville, cut off power to Oak
View Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center for several hours and
cause most folks to start looking
for batteries and sources of light
and heat.
SCHOOLS
The Chattooga County and
Trion City SchooFSystems were
closed Monday. The Chattooga
schools remained closed Tues
day but county youngsters re
turned to classes Wednesday
morning, an hour later than
usual.
At the peak of the power
outage, all of Georgia Power
Company’s 8,800 to 9,000 Chat
tooga County customers had no
electricity, said Danny Fricks,
operational supervisor for the
utility’s Summerville office.
according to the Georgia State
Patrol (GSP) report by Trooper
D. B. Jones. e
The impact snae%ped the
utility pole and caused the ve
hicle to travel airborne approxi
mately 10 feet, fll;gping onto its
togl and ejecting the driver. The
vehicle continued to flip over,
spinning around and coming to
rest in a ditch on its wheels, ac
cording to the GSP report.
No citations were issued as
© Copyright 2000 By Espy Publishing Co., Inc. — All Rights Reserved
SUMMERVILLE, CHATTOOGA COUNTY, GEORGIA — THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2000
THREE COUNTIES
Ron Hutchins, general man
ager of North Georgia Electric
Membershi? Co;p. (NGEMO),
said 4,500 of the Trion District’s
6,000 customers were without
}fi)‘wer at the peak of the outage.
e district includes all of Chat
tooga and parts of Walker and
Floyd counties.
Systemwide, he said,
NGEMC had 25,000 out of its
85,000 customers in North
Georgia out of power due to the
storm. NGEMC has 5,500 miles
of lines, Hutchins said.
NGEMC CREWS
Hutchins was at the Trion
office Monday morning as part
of his visit to EMC’s district of
fices. Fifty-three crews were
working on the outages through
out the system by Monday, he
said then.
NGEMC had about 35 em
ployees and contractors on the
a result of the mishap.
Floyd was employed by
Mohawk Industries in the main
tenance department. :
SURVIVORS
Floyd is survived EH' his
widow, Annette Butler Floyd;
three daughters, Knit?'n Alexis
and Madison Floyd, al of L¥erly;
parents, Charles Floyd, Trion
and Patsy Floyd, Lyerly; two sis-
job in the local district by Mon
day afternoon, Hutchins said.
Some 22 crews consistinfilof 5
to 80 crewmen were wor gg in
Chattooga County by Tuesday,
Laura Sparks, a NGEMC spokes
man, said Wednesday.
Fricks said near noon
Wednesday that virtually all of
Georgia Power’s customers had
service back by 11 p.m. Tuesday.
That excluded individual houses
where meter bases had been torn
off the buildings or out of roofs,
he indicated. As soon as a pro
fessional electrician replaces the
damaged areas, Georgia Power
will tfien reconnect electrical
power, he said.
CLEANUP
Some cleanup was still go
ing on at noon Wednesday atOJ)
Lookout Mountain, Fricks said.
Some of that involved removing
and replacing downed secondary
service lines, he indicated.
Ms. Sparks said %)wer had
been restored to all but about
200 of NGEMC's Chattooga
County customers by Wednes
day morning. Almost all of those
sites involved individual service
lines to homes, which typically
take longer to repair than main
feeder lines that serve a lar&e
number of customers, she indi
cated. At
For example, it might take
four hours to restore power to
one home but onl{ an hour to
restore power to a large area by
repairing a main line, she indi
cated.
“If anyone has not had
power restored,” she said, “call
us because there might be areas
we are not always aware of.” Too,
she added, branches or trees
weakened by the heavy loads of
ice and snow could fall days later,
knocking out power lines or
poles.
DOWNTOWN
One of the oddities was that
the storm cut off power to virtu
ally all downtown Summerville.
Fricks said the downtown
area is served from the Maple
Avenue substation at U.S. 27.
One line runs along Rome Bou
levard into town, another splits
off onto East Washington Street
into the citg and the other cuts
onto Bellah Avenue and back
into town, he indicated.
Two-hundred crewmen, in
cluding outside contractors and
Alabama Power Co. employees,
were working for Georgia Power
in Chattooga by about noon
Monday, Fricks said. That num
ber increased to approximately
300 geople in the county by
Tuesday, he said, as Georgia
Power made an all-out effort to
restore power to all its custom
ers.
GOING HOME
“We should be able to close
down at 5 p.m. today and go
home,” the tired Fricks said
Wednesday.
Georgia Power officials said
Wednesday they hoged that ten
tative forecasts for this weekend
calling for snow, sleet or freezing
rain would turn out to be inac
curate.
~ “These people have worked
hard since Saturday,” he said
Wednesday. “They need a little
rest.”
No Georgia Power empl?iy
ees or contract line crew indi
viduals were injured during the
see CHATTOOGA, page 8-A
ters and brothers-in-law, Stacy
and Steven Fountain, Summer
vil!ie and é)onna Flcgd, Lyerl()l!
and gran l.‘Parents, urtis an
Ella Mae Floyd, Trion and Elsie
Reid, Jonesboro.
Funeral services were held
at 10 a.m. Tuesday from the
ch:gel of Mason Funeral Home
with Rev. Jamie Maples officiat
ing. Interment was in AMI Cem
etery.
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Staff Photo
Another Winter Storm?
Chattoogans Watch Differing Forecasts
By JASON ESPY
Staff Writer
After recovering from a sur
prise winter ice storm last week
end Chattooga County could be
hit by another winter storm later
today and tomorrow, according
to various meteorologists.
Intellicast Forecast, Chatta
nooga, CNN Weather,
AccuWeather and the Weather
Channel all agreed that the
county is expected to receive
some type of winter precipitation
Friday.
“As far as any long term
Planning, we are just tg'ing todo
ike we normally would do,” said
Chattooga County Sheriff Ralph
Kellett. “We've not put up our
winter weather gear just yet.”
Not all forecasters agree
what type and how much snow,
ice or rain Chattooga will receive
durini the next several days.
Most, however, predict snow or
ice for Friday.
Intellicast is calling for fair
skies toda{ with highhs in the low
40’s and lows in the low 20’s.
Friday it will be mostly cloud
with a chance of snow expecte:i
Hishs will be in the higher 30’s
and lows around 27.
CNN
CNN Weather predicts clear
skies for today. Tomorrow CNN
calls for lows around 29 and
“icy.”
The Weather Channel is
calling for partly cloudy skies to
day with highs in the low 40’s
and lows around 21 degrees. To
morrow they are calling for snow
with lows in the upper 20’s.
AccuWeather 1s calling for
mostly sunny skies tod?'. To
morrow it will be “cloudy and
cold.” Highs in the upper 30’s
and lows in the upper 20’s.
The forecasts for Saturday
all differ as well. Some predict
rain showers and others say it
will be partly cloudy. The tem
peratures range from hci‘ghs in
mid 40’s and lows around freez
ing.
NOT ENTHUSIASTIC
Summerville City Manager
Grady McCalmon says he is not
too enthusiastic about mounting
a huge clean up campaign. Be
fore cleaning up debrs left over
from last weekend’s storm,
McCalmon wants to see how
VEHICLES WEAVE AROUND TREES ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN
Hays Prison, DOT Crews Work Way Along Ga. 48 Sunday
manfi\: more trees and limbs will
fall from this weekend'’s storm.
“We are waiting to see what
we need to do. Chattooga County
was one out of 20 counties de
clared a disaster area by Georgia
Gov. (Roy) Barnes,” McCalmon
said. “We are going to remove
onl{ those limbs and trees that
we have to until we see what we
need to do to be reimbursed.”
Thirty-four counties have
requested state assistance
through the Georgia Emergency
Management Agency (GEMA)
and have been included in
Sunday’s “state of emergency”
Site Of Grisly Murder-
Of Ohio Woman Being
Discussed By Authorities
DeKalb County, Ala. and
Chattooaa Coun?' Sheriff offi
cials are looking for evidence to
determine where an Ohio man
allegedly gruesomely mutilated
and ate parts of his 25-year-old
victim.
The discussion between
Chattooga Coun%Sheriff Ralph
Kellett and DeKalb County Sher
iff Cecil Reed will determine who
will have jurisdiction and cus
tody of Hayward W. Bissell, 37,
Norwalk, Ohio. -
“As of this mornin&
(Wednesday), we've not foun
any evidence of anything that
would goint that the crime hap
pened here,” Sheriff Kellett said.
Bissell is the chief suspect in
the death of Patricia Ann Booher,
also of Norwalk. Both were alleg
edly traveling from Norwalk to
visit his parents in Winter Ha
ven, Fla., according to Sheriff
Reed Tuesday afternoon.
CLUES
.The Alabama sheriff aent
most of the afternoon in Chat
tooga County looking for pos
sible clues as to where the mur
der took place in Chattooga or
DeKalb County.
Booher’s mutilated body
issued by Gov. Barnes. Those
counties are Banks, Barrow,
Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chat
too%z;, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton,
Cobb, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas,
Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Frank
lin, Fulton, Gilmer, Gordon,
Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall,
Lumpkin, Oconee, Paulding,
Pickens, Rockdale, S‘t;;ghens,
Union, Walker, White, Whitfield
and Wilkes.
A state of emelgency allows
state personnel an equipment
to be used to helg local eaFovem
ments %rotect gu lic health, pre
serve the public’s safety, keep
was discovered in Bissell’s car
when he was captured near
Hammondsville, Ala. Monday.
Bissell saé:othe murder hap
i)(e?led in rgia, according to
ellett.
That admission led the Ala
bama sheriff to look for clues in
Chattooga County. Alle%edly
both sheriff’s discovered Tues-
237, gLoUIL
e¢ e e
s i
i e
# e ? é;
4 e 8
) .
oA = i
HAYWARD W. BISSELL.
property damage to a minimum
andgf) restore tfie social and eco
nomic welfare, according to
GEMA director Gary McConnell.
PREPARING
Trion and Summerville Po
lice Chiefs Charles Latta and
Stan Mosley say they are prepar
ing for this weekend’s winter
weather. According to Latta, he’s
getting his four-wheel drive
trucks ready and having officers
stand by. Makigg sure genera
tors are connected and fueled are
another essential element for
both departments.
day that Bissell indeed may have
traveled through the county. A
Summerville resident, whose
name is not being released bK the
sheriff’s degartment, saw both
Bissell and his companion Sun
day about 10 a.m.
Sheriff Kellett said the Sum
merville resident claims Booher
was still alive. In fact, the Sum
merville resident asked the
cougle, who were parked on the
roadway, if the{‘needed any help.
They declined help.
“We talked to a lady who
thinks she saw them here Sun
day morning,” Sheriff Reed said.
“We don't want to release
her name but she is upset,”
Kellett said. : 7
“We are trying to determine
who has erisdlction of the crime
scene,” Reed said. “There is a
s‘ood possibility that they passed
rough here.
Anyone that might have
seen Bissell in Chattooga County
needs to contact the sheriff’s de
partment, according to Kellett.
CAMERAS
Sheriff Kellett sa{s Bissell
allegedly stopped in a local con
venience store Sunday. Kellett
see SITE OF GRISLY, page 5-A