By Allison Floyd
afloyd@onlineathens.com

Chris McClure, a lineman with Georgia Power, repairs damage to power lines on College Ave., after a downed tree limb knocked out electricity to parts of downtown Athens. R.C. Rique/Staff

   Business stopped for about an hour in most of downtown Athens Thursday after a tree limb fell on a power line and knocked out electricity to the area.
   About 800 Georgia Power customers in the area bordered by Hancock Avenue and Dougherty, Pulaski and Thomas streets lost electricity for 30 to 50 minutes, depending on the location, according to Georgia Power.
   A tree limb fell on a line along College Avenue, but the problem was not related to the weather, according to Georgia Power.
   Without computers, business limped along at some offices and shops.
   ''It's an ugly hour between 4 and 5 (p.m.) with so many people wanting to buy stamps and mail things,'' said Robin Willoughby, a postal clerk at the post office building on East Hancock Avenue, where employees worked in the dark. ''We can still sell stamps, but don't ask us to weigh anything.''
   Down the street, Athens First Bank and Trust's residential mortgage branch lost half an hour of business, but the one real-estate closing scheduled for that time was moved to an attorney's office that wasn't affected by the power outage, according to branch manager Jeff Bishop.
   ''These days, with computers, when the power is down, you're down,'' Bishop joked.
   Many other downtown business did not lose power for an extended period of time, but electrical service flickered.
   Those flickers are caused by the equipment resetting itself when it detects an outage, explained Linda Gantt, assistant to the region distribution manager for Georgia Power.
   Power was restored to downtown by 4:20 p.m.
   

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, January 17, 2003.