Electric Membership Cooperatives (EMCs) Continue to Clear Outages
TUCKER, Ga., Feb. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- At 10 a.m., there are approximately 53,000 EMC customers without power, down from 134,000 at the height of the storm. EMCs have worked around the clock since the arrival of winter weather to restore service to more than 80,000 customers in heavily damaged and, in some cases. inaccessible parts of northeast Georgia.
Restoration has been difficult due to extreme damage to power lines, power poles and other utility equipment coupled with thousands of downed trees which must be cleared before workers can gain access to damaged areas.
All available resources have been dedicated to the restoration effort. Each of the affected EMCs has called in hundreds of additional line crews and now have a large contingent of local EMC crews, EMC line workers from other parts of the state, private contract crews, additional right-of-way crews, as well as line crews from Virginia, Alabama and Florida.
The storm caused the heaviest damage in Forsyth, Hall, Gwinnett, Lumpkin, Dawson, Cherokee, Jackson, Banks, Barrow, Habersham and White counties. Today, most EMCs estimate that the majority of customers will be restored within 24-48 hours, while some outages will take longer due to the extent of damage and because some are located in isolated areas.
Georgia EMC is the statewide trade association representing the state's 41 EMCs, Oglethorpe Power Corp., Georgia Transmission Corp. and Georgia System Operations Corp. Collectively, Georgia's customer-owned EMCs provide electricity and related services to 4.4 million people, half of Georgia's population, across 73 percent of the state's land area.
Note: Another update is scheduled for 4 p.m.
SOURCE Georgia EMC
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