By Mark Woolsey

Cobb County appears to have escaped the worst of the wintry blast, but it looks like residents shouldn’t let their guard down completely.

The Cobb Emergency Management Agency reported that all roads in the county were open Monday morning, but they warned that a few slick spots may remain on secondary roads and that some of it could be hard-to-spot black ice.

County crews continued to treat highways and byways Sunday and said that windy conditions overnight helped to dry road surfaces.

County workers also removed 29 trees that had come down on roads, some of which impacted power lines.

Despite that, a check with Cobb EMC Monday morning showed only one outage affecting fewer than 5 customers and EMCs overall reporteing 146 customers without power in metro Atlanta. By contrast, 15 thousand people were still in the dark in Northeast Georgia.

Georgia Power reported an approximate 21 hundred customers without power across metro Atlanta, with higher numbers In NE Georgia.

All those numbers were expected to improve as the day progressed.

Widespread closures remained in effect, including all Cobb County government offices and facilities, individual cities within the county except for the city of Acworth. Kennesaw State, Chattahoochee Technical College campuses, Cobb-Douglas Public Health and several state agencies.

Now attention turns to bitter cold air that is moving in behind the departed winter system. Cobb County highs Tuesday through Thursday are forecast to range in the upper 30s to about 40. Lows are expected to be generally in the low to mid 20s.

The National Weather Service is also forecasting dangerous wind chills. The “feels like” temperature is expected to range between zero and 15 degrees. Officials say that’s low enough to quickly cause frostbite on exposed skin.

Officials advise dressing in layers, letting pipes drip slowly to prevent freezing and checking on the elderly.