Forecasters say Hurricane Sandy is fueling strong wind gusts in parts of Georgia that knocked out power to thousands of customers in the Atlanta area.

The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning through Tuesday morning for several counties in the northeast Georgia mountains.

The National Weather Service said the combination of Hurricane Sandy and high pressure building south from Canada is the cause of the gusty winds. Forecasters say wind gusts of up to 55 mph are possible in Lumpkin, Towns, Union and White counties in northeast Georgia.

Georgia Power reported early Monday morning that 4,500 customers -- mostly in Atlanta -- were without power as winds caused outages.

Tags: weather, Hurricane Sandy