Outage restoration continues

Our crews, and the crews who’ve come in to assist us, continue to work diligently to restore power. Currently, we are down to 58 separate outages, for a total of 687 members out. As members get power restored in some areas, other areas are experiencing outages due to the continuous rain and high winds we are experiencing. More rain is in our forecast for this morning, and with the ground already saturated, trees are falling onto our power lines. It is important to remember that while we have an effective and well organized right of way management program, our power lines run cross country and are in rural areas. There are thousands of trees that are 80, 90, 100+ feet tall and these are well out of the range that we are allowed to clear, once they’ve fallen. When they do fall, they are striking the wires and bringing the power lines down with them, many times resulting in broken poles. Crews have already reported 22 broken poles. Please remember to stay away from any downed power lines: always assume they are still energized. We thank you for your continued patience, as we work hard to get the lights back on.  All power will be restored as soon as is safely possible.