EMC Outages Drop Overnight Despite Nighttime Working Conditions

(TUCKER, Ga.)— At 5:45 a.m., outages continue to decrease for customers of Georgia’s electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) involved in an extensive restoration effort involving hundreds of linemen and additional support following Tropical Storm Zeta.

EMCs are currently reporting 63,000 outages primarily in metro Atlanta, north and northeast Georgia. In the last 48 hours, EMCs have restored service to 337,000 members following a two- to three-hour storm which pummeled the state and caused 400,000 outages for EMC customers.

Local crews are working with linemen from across Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.

While EMCs would like to offer specifics regarding power restoration, it is not possible to pinpoint an exact day and time due to the challenging conditions and level of damage linemen are facing at each outage. Crews have been faced with huge uprooted trees on top of and entangled in poles, transformers and power lines. For these reasons, some EMCs note that restoration in severely damaged areas may continue thru the weekend.

For specific timelines and updates, EMC members should visit their respective EMC web sites and/or social media channels for the latest information.

Note to media: Outage information is available and updated every 15 minutes at www.georgiaemc.com/outages.

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, nearly half of Georgia’s population, across 73 percent of the state’s land area. To learn more, visit www.georgiaemc.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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