TUCKER, Ga. — As of 10 a.m. the electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) of Georgia are reporting approximately 428,000 customers without power, down from 466,000 earlier today.

 

Now that Tropical Storm Irma has moved through Georgia and taken hurricane-force winds with her, crews have been able to work safely to conduct damage assessments and begin the very difficult task of repairing the electric infrastructure.

 

For many EMCs, much of the day will be spent cutting into areas where damage has occurred and removing trees before repairs can be made to hundreds of broken poles and dozens of spans of downed wire.

 

This storm and the resulting damage is an unprecedented outage event, and EMC representatives warn that in some cases outages will extend through the weekend. Members should follow local EMC restoration updates provided in newspapers, TV and radio, social media and EMC web sites to make alternate arrangements if necessary.

 

Anticipating extreme wind damage which Tropical Storm Irma certainly delivered, EMCs pre-arranged for more than 1,000 crews, and extra trucks and equipment to arrive from 11 states—Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Caroline, Texas and Wisconsin.

 

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, the 42 customer-owned EMCs provide electricity and related services to 4.4 million people, nearly half of Georgia’s population, across 73 percent of the state’s land area.

 

Note: Another update will be provided at 3 p.m. today.  Meanwhile, for the latest outage information, go to https://georgiaemc.com/storm-center/current-outages.