June 2, 2004
Albany- When this storm moved into Dougherty County, it brought a black sky with it.
But the most dangerous part may have been the lightning.
It hit a tree on Stuart Avenue, knocking it onto a light pole. Lightning also set fire to a power transformer on Holly Drive and across town, caused a fire at a utility house on East 4th Avenue.
"Then I come outside to see what the problem was and I saw the utility house smoking," said the homeowner Charlie Jackson.
Seeing everything in the house go up in smoke is bad news for the painting business Jackson has run for more than 55 years.
"Anytime you lose that much, it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt pretty bad."
All the paint kept here is ruined and he lost new ladders and more than $800 in drop cloths. Trying to save anything in a fire that involved paint chemicals would have been too dangerous.
"I tried to go in the door, but it was too big a fire when I went to it," he said. "And I couldn't get nothing out."
Except for his motorcycle he was able to move away from the house, the item Jackson says he definitely could have lived without.
posted at 9:28 p.m. by brannon.stewart@walb.com
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