DEKLAB COUNTY, Ga — A hurricane evacuee who drove to DeKalb County from Florida found his truck crushed by a fallen tree.
Channel 2's Tom Regan spoke with neighbors along one street who said they have lived without electricity since Monday.
By Monday evening, a road crew arrived to begin removing a large oak tree that support power lines along Echo Lake Trail near Briarcliff Road.
“No power, no shower, everything has been really hard,” neighbor Fred Milani told Regan.
Milani told Regan that he felt bad for the owner of the pickup that was crushed by the tree.
But Milani also has his own problems, having lived without electricity for several days.
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“I hope they come soon, because I'm throwing away all my meat in two freezers,” Milani said on Thursday.
That's the way it is for more than 10,000 customers in DeKalb County who are anxiously waiting for the lights to come back on.
“I’m going back and forth to the motel. Now all my food is spoiled so I'm going back to clean up everything," Miriam Fountain said.
Frustration is building on Tolliver Drive, which is still blocked by a large utility cable sagging from a pole.
Vanity Mann said she’s keeping her children away.
“We don't know if it's live, so we stay away from it, stay inside and stay away from the caution tape,” Mann said.
She told Regan some residents who rely on power for medical equipment have had to leave.
“We have, like, old seniors on our street. We have, like, young children, and our power has gone off and we don't have no generator, unfortunately,” Mann said.
Georgia Power said it deployed thousands of workers and contractors to repair downed power lines.
Since Monday, the number of power outages in the county has dropped from over 170,000 to a little more than 10,000.
That's good, but not good enough if you're still without power, like Lenue Mears.
“How has that been?” Regan asked Mears.
“Rough, really rough," Mears said.
The DeKalb County School District announced Thursday that, after being closed for four days, schools will reopen Friday.