Electric Membership Cooperatives (EMCs) Restore Power to Thousands
TUCKER, Ga., Feb. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- As of 2:30 p.m., Georgia's electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) are reporting approximately 89,000 customers in northeast Georgia without power, down from 115,000 before lunch today, and 134,000 at the height of the storm.
Hardest hit EMCs are being joined by hundreds of EMC crews from across the state, additional contract crews and other right-of-way crews as they go about the massive task of restoring power in heavily damaged and remote parts of the state.
Significant ice accumulation caused trees and limbs to fall on power lines and damaged or destroyed power poles. A major challenge has been the difficulty of reaching these areas, so a critical part of restoration has been and continues to be removal of hundreds of trees and other debris so that crews can complete work.
Damage has been especially problematic in Forsyth, Hall, Gwinnett, Lumpkin, Dawson, Cherokee, Jackson, Banks, Barrow, Habersham and White counties. At this time, most EMCs estimate that the majority of customers will be restored within 24-48 hours, while some outages will take longer due to the nature of damage and because some outages are located in remote 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 currently scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight.
SOURCE Georgia EMC
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