PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. (AP) -- Storms from the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy caused at least two deaths, along with high winds and heavy rain across much of west and northern Georgia on Wednesday.
The storm knocked down trees, damaged buildings and dumped more than 5 inches of rain in some places as it moved through the area, the National Weather Service said.
The National Weather Service posted flood watches for north and central Georgia into Thursday, and a flood watch in the northeast mountains through Thursday night.
In Peachtree City, an 18-year-old man drowned in a creek that flows into a lake, said Lt. Ron Mundy of the Peachtree City Fire Department. A dive team was still searching for the man's body Thursday morning, Mundy said.
In Douglas County, a woman was killed after her car hydroplaned on Interstate 20, crossed the grassy median and collided head-on with a sport utility vehicle, authorities said.
The Hampton area in Henry County was hit hard. Four planes were overturned and two hangars were damaged at Tara Field, fire officials said.
A building at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, which houses several condominiums on the top floors and administrative offices on the bottom floor, suffered severe damage, speedway President Ed Clark said.
''The condo building and the whole track area got hit pretty hard,'' Clark said. ''It's pretty extreme.''
No one was injured, but windows were blown out and vehicles were blown around by strong winds, Clark said.
Also, homes in McDonough - about 10 miles northeast of Hampton _ were damaged by heavy winds, Henry County Public Safety Director Mike Turner said. Authorities were searching the county, but so far, there were no reports of injuries.
About 30 homes were damaged in the neighborhood of Melony Duffey, a McDonough resident. Eight large pine trees fell down in her yard, destroying her family's GMC Suburban and a van.
''I've never been through anything like this before and I've been in Georgia all my life,'' said Duffey, 46. ''Houses on the street behind us, they have trees inside their houses. It's like every other house.''
The National Weather Service would investigate the damage in Henry County as a possible tornado, said Eric Avila, a meteorologist. There were also reports of possible tornado damage in Heard, Meriwether, Coweta and Fayette counties, Avila said.
An area of Coweta County north of Newnan saw the most rain with 5.7 inches, Avila said. DeKalb County had 4 inches and Fayette County saw 5.2 inches. Fayette County was also hit with dime and nickel-sized hail.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport got 5.1 inches of rain, much of it falling between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., Avila said.
''It came down pretty quickly,'' he said.
At least 60 flights at the airport were canceled and others were delayed up to three hours.
About 34,000 Georgia Power customers lost power in the storm, Georgia Power spokeswoman Carol Boatright said. All the power outages were in the Atlanta area and Georgia Power hoped to have most of them back up by noon Thursday, Boatright said.
The Atlanta Braves' Wednesday night game against the Chicago Cubs was postponed and was rescheduled for Thursday afternoon.
The rains brought traffic on the Interstate 85-75 connector through downtown Atlanta to a crawl starting around 9 p.m. Other freeways were affected and several downtown streets were flooded.
The storm flooded areas of the Gulf Coast as it pushed inland, leaving more than a quarter-million homes and businesses there without electricity. Cindy's top sustained winds weakened it to a tropical depression.
But by Thursday morning, Avila said storm conditions had begun to calm down for Georgia.
''Things are dying down a little bit as the heavier stuff is starting to move into South Carolina,'' Avila said.
Meanwhile, forecasters continued to monitor Hurricane Dennis, which threatened Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Cuba on a path that could take it near the Alabama-Florida line by this weekend.
But how exactly it will affect the South is not yet known, said meteorologist Kent McMullen.
''We're just saying it's coming into the Gulf of Mexico this weekend,'' he said. ''From there it's anybody's choice for where it's going to go.''
