The remnants of Hurricane Zeta blew through Macon County on the night of Thursday, Oct. 29, toppling trees, flooding low-lying areas and knocking out power to thousands.
A tropical storm warning was issued for Macon County on Oct. 29, and high winds continued into Sunday, but the county appeared to escape relatively unscathed.
“There was really no significant damage,” said Macon EMS director Warren Cabe. “We actually had some pretty significant winds late Sunday night and early Monday.”
A Duke Energy lineworker was injured Friday, Oct. 30. The worker, whose name was not released, is recovering at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia.
“An investigation of this incident is underway to learn what happened,” said Megan Miles with Duke corporate communications. “Due to employee privacy concerns, we cannot share additional information.”
Minor flooding occurred in low-lying areas, and at least three roads in the county were damaged, including subsidence that forced the closure of Wells Grove Road. A section of US 64 east of Highlands, along with a road in Scaly Mountain, were also damaged.
Sustained winds were estimated at 26-30 mph with gusts of 40-50 mph on mountaintops.
“This is a little bit later than normal for our tropical season,” Cabe said. “Our tropical impacts are usually in late August and September.”
At its peak, the storm had knocked out power to 5,609 homes and businesses in the county, said Lisa Leatherman, Nantahala Area district manager for Duke Energy. Power was completely restored by about 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1.
The remaining outages on Sunday were scattered throughout Macon, but a big chunk of it was east of Franklin,” Leatherman said.
“We had crews and staff that worked through the night each night, working on damage assessment and power restoration,” she said.