PALMETTO, Ga. – Coweta-Fayette Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) is making steady progress in assessing and repairing the damage caused by Hurricane Helene. As of noon on Friday, we are addressing approximately 10 broken poles across our service area, leaving 880 members still without power. The primary cause of outages has been toppled trees entangled with power lines, combined with sustained winds of 15 mph and gusts over 30 mph.
While crews are working hard to restore power, the combination of strong winds and saturated soil means that additional outages may occur throughout the day. Our own line crews, along with teams from PowerGrid Services, Pike Corporation, MasTec Utility Services, Asplundh, Palmetto Line Clearing, Thompson Construction Inc., Somerset Rural Electric Cooperative, Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative, Northwestern Rural Electric Cooperative, and New Enterprise Rural Electric Cooperative, are responding as quickly and safely as possible to these outages.
“Our system has weathered the storm well,” said Clarence Wright, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations. “We were well prepared. Thanks to our automated systems, we were able to shift loads and restore power to many members quickly. This year, we’ve focused heavily on right-of-way maintenance, and we’ll continue this effort throughout the year. Most of the damage we’re dealing with now comes from trees falling onto the lines from outside of the right of way.”
Safety Reminder: Please be cautious of any downed power lines in the area. Always assume that they are live and dangerous. Stay far away, keep others clear, and report the situation immediately to Coweta-Fayette EMC at 770-502-0226 or call 911 until help arrives.
Our Emergency Operations Center remains in storm mode, and our offices will be closed to the public today. We will resume normal operations on Monday. In the meantime, you can track our restoration efforts through the outage map on the Storm Center section of our website, www.utility.org/storms. We will continue to provide updates on our website and through our social media channels.
Coweta-Fayette EMC is a member-owned energy company, serving over 82,000 accounts, headquartered in Palmetto, Ga. Coweta -Fayette EMC is an equal opportunity provider and employer /M/F/Y/D