Hurricane Michael knocks over hundreds of trees, blocking Macon County Streets

MONTEZUMA, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon County took a big hit from Michael. There were a lot of trees down, some blocking main streets in houses and on downtown businesses.

Macon County EMA Director James Connor says they have mostly all major roads cleared of debris and are working on secondary roads.

“Never seen anything like this before, in my life. We’ve never been under a hurricane warning – a tropical storm warning – but never a hurricane,” resident Cheryl Mygrant said.

All across Macon County, fallen trees and limbs liter the streets and front yards.

“We had strong winds and probably 3-5 inches of rain fell last night,” Connor said.

Since six Thursday morning, Connor and volunteers were hard at work.

“My crews hit the ground running this morning, so we can get reports and record them for the crew when they came in at daylight,” he said.

Connor says power went out at the 911 dispatch center, so the EMA’s phones were ringing off the hook all night.

“But, the good lord actually blessed us. We’re in pretty good shape in Macon County. Other than we have a lot of residents all across the county without power,” he said.

Connor says he’s learned a lot since getting hit with Irma last year.

“Irma wasn’t quite as strong as Michael. We had stronger winds and higher gusts, so we have more debris down and it may take a few more days,” he said.

Mygrant has been a resident in Macon County for 18 years and is in complete shock over michael barreling through.

“It’s just been something else, heavy winds, trees down everywhere, everybody is without power. We have a small business here on downtown Montezuma, Junk to Treasure. As you can see the tree back there in the power lines and everything I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s almost devastation,” she said.

There are no reported deaths or injuries. There are still hundreds without power in Montezuma, Ideal, Marshallville, and Oglethorpe – including residential outages.

Connor says they are hoping they can restore power in two to three days.

He adds, a deputy sheriff did hit a tree in his personal vehicle due to lack of visibility. He was not injured.