North Fulton County residents continue recovering from overnight storms, toppled trees

North Fulton County continues to recover from the overnight storms that rolled through metro Atlanta Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

The Roswell Fire Department posted on Facebook that crews responded to a call on River Close at 7:37 p.m. on Wednesday after a neighbor saw a bright flash of lightning and stepped outside to find smoke and fire coming from the roof next door.

RFD said crews were at the scene in under four minutes, had the fire under control by 7:57 p.m., and no injuries were reported.

Minutes away in the Huntcliff neighborhood in Sandy Springs, neighbors were without power for hours on Thursday after a tree fell, taking out multiple power lines on Huntcliff Trace.

Sandy Springs resident Sid Stephens said this is not the first time this has happened.

"Every time it gets cloudy, we think, 'OK, when's it gonna happen,'" Stephens said. "And it happens more often than not."

Stephens said he woke up to the sound of the tree falling around 6:45 Thursday morning.

"When I heard the sound, I knew what was gonna happen," he said. "You hear the snap, and then you hear the box blow, and then it's over."

Stephens said they care for their grown son with cerebral palsy. When the power goes out, it can be a challenge.

"Temperature inside the house affects him greatly, so without air conditioning or heating in the winter, you know it can be a detriment," Stephens said.

He said generators aren't just a want, they're a need at this point.

"It's a situation where it's become a necessity for our community," Stephens said. "And there's a lot of people in the community that have them. Our street — there's 12 people on this little street — I think six have generators and the other six want them."

Stephens said it's a thing they have to get used to in the neighborhood and adds the City of Sandy Springs has done a great job trying to help.

"There's 402 homes in this community," Stephens said. "It's a long, big community, and they have trimmed trees multiple times and you know tried to do everything they can to prevent it, but you know a big tree falls, it's gonna fall 70, 80 feet across the whole street, and I think there's nothing they can really do."

Georgia Power told CBS Atlanta it conducts routine inspections and cyclical trimming, but the company said it's important to note that severe weather can cause even well-maintained trees to fall.