The tropical storm remnants of Hurricane Irma brought widespread devastation to our service area. It’s important to remember this was no regular summer storm. It was historic for Georgia to be under a tropical storm warning and power outages were recorded in all 41 EMCs across the state.
Extremely high winds and heavy rain lasted for hours during the evening and through the night on Monday, September 11, 2017. Power outages began Monday afternoon around 3:45 p.m. At the height of the storm, approximately 27,583 members were without power, across all ten counties we serve.
Additional contractor line crews and right of way crews were brought in to assist as well as from sister EMCs from Georgia and other states. Crews worked 6 days to repair and rebuild power lines. The last meter was restored on Sunday, September 17, around 5:00 p.m. Across the state, a total of approximately 550,000 member outages were restored.
We appreciate the patience and understanding of our members during this extended outage period and a sincere thank you to those who came to assist us.