Minimal outages reported in Chattanooga area; morning lightning strike knocks out power in Alabama

UPDATE: The Sand Mountain Electric Cooperative had reported outages this morning in the Henagar, Ala., area due to a lightning strike at 9:43 a.m. EDT, temporarily knocking out power along a city street, the police department and several businesses as well as numerous homes.

A service department official said about 220 homes and businesses were without power after the strike. Power was restored about 11:30 a.m. EDT, the official said.

The North Georgia Electric Membership Corporation reports that 34 customers out of their total of 99,000 customers are without power, according to our news partner WRCB.

No outages are indicated at this time for the Chattanooga area on the EPB outage map.

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ORIGINAL STORY: In the Chattanooga area, EPB’s outage map shows “minimal” power outages on Lookout Mountain, Red Bank and Moccasin Bend.

In Alabama, Alabama Power reported at 7 a.m. CDT today that there were already 5,500 homes without power – mostly in Southeast Alabama and the Mobile area – as a strong storm system moved through the state overnight.

According to Alabama Power officials, 2,600 outages were reported in counties in the Southeastern portion of the state, another 1,200 in the Birmingham area, 900 on the east side of the state and another 500 homes without power on the west side of Alabama.

At 10 a.m. EDT National Weather Service radar in Huntsville shows heavy rains are moving into DeKalb and Jackson counties in Northeast Alabama and pushing northward toward the Tennessee border.

In North Georgia, weather service radar shows storms pounding counties from the Alabama line to the South Carolina line, with very heavy storms in the Atlanta area and west of the city.

Rains are lighter south of Atlanta.

In Southeast Tennessee, rains are now moving into Bradley, Hamilton, Marion, Polk and Monroe counties.