Energy restored to 95%+ of Georgia Energy prospects impacted by Hurricane Helene By Investing.com

Crews managing closing intensive restorative efforts in hardest hit areas and can stay within the discipline till all prospects who can settle for energy are reconnected

ATLANTA, Oct. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Georgia Energy has restored energy to 1.3 million+ prospects following Hurricane Helene “ greater than 95% of all prospects who had been impacted by essentially the most damaging hurricane within the firm’s historical past. Intensive restoration efforts stay underway to reconnect prospects within the hardest hit areas of the state, notably Augusta the place 80% of impacted prospects had been reconnected as of Saturday morning and work was ongoing to reconnect the roughly 50,000 prospects who remained with out energy. Whereas harm and treacherous circumstances stay, groups are working across the clock and can stay within the discipline till each buyer who can settle for energy is reconnected.

“Our work isn’t done until every customer who can receive power has it “ we want our customers to know that commitment is shared by everyone on our team,” stated Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Energy. “We have matched the devastation of Hurricane Helene with an army of thousands of lineworkers, who continue to work through fallen trees and miles of broken power poles and downed lines to bring light back to Georgia homes and businesses. I’m grateful for their tireless work to reconnect so many customers so quickly, and the continued resilience and patience of our customers and communities.”

Hurricane Helene prompted widespread destruction throughout the state of Georgia “ from Atlanta’s northern suburbs, to Columbus, to Albany, to Valdosta and Savannah. Nearly no a part of the state was spared by the storm. Greater than 20,000 personnel have contributed to the corporate’s speedy response to the hurricane and stay engaged with crews working their means by way of the ability system effectively and successfully to restore excessive harm and restore energy to essentially the most prospects with each restore made. In lots of circumstances, the harm to infrastructure has been so extreme that groups are basically rebuilding sections of the grid and never simply repairing particular parts.

Georgia Energy is part of the Southern Firm (NYSE:) system, which continues to coordinate and contribute to restoration and reduction efforts following Hurricane Helene. On Friday, a number of charitable foundations throughout the system pledged $3 million to help the restoration effort. Learn extra right here.

“As Georgia continues to rebuild in the weeks and months ahead, we know that our customers will continue to need support. We are actively working with community leaders across the state, and identifying opportunities for us to provide assistance and demonstrate our commitment to being a citizen wherever we serve,” added Greene.

Up to date harm estimates illustrating the in depth destruction of Hurricane Helene embody:

• 8,300+ energy poles that have to be repaired or changed
• 21,000+ spans of wire broken equal to roughly 1,000 miles
• 2,000+ transformers broken
• 3,200+ timber on energy strains that have to be eliminated or addressed to revive energy

Restoration Standing & Reconnection

Georgia Energy appreciates the significance of correct data for patrons as they make plans for his or her households following this historic hurricane. As the corporate anticipated and introduced earlier than the arrival of the storm, restoration efforts are taking a number of days in lots of areas because of the in depth harm from Helene. Georgia Energy continues to publish up to date estimated restoration occasions (ERTs) for communities on its Outage Map.

The corporate will proceed to publish up to date data all through the rest of the restoration course of and can make each effort to return energy to prospects ahead of anticipated. Nonetheless, as new harm in beforehand inaccessible areas turns into obvious, restoration efforts could take longer than initially estimated. Prospects are inspired to examine the Outage Map typically for the most recent data and never depend on probably inaccurate particulars they could see from non-company sources.

The corporate at the moment estimates that as much as 8,000 buyer houses could not be capable to be safely reconnected due electrical service entrance harm. The corporate can’t restore or restore energy to houses with broken service entrances and encourages prospects to name 1-877-749-3931 to request a service entrance restore or contact an authorized electrician of their space. Learn extra right here.

Preparation, Trade Assist Key to Response

Georgia Energy monitored the trail of Hurricane Helene for greater than per week previous to Hurricane Helene getting into Georgia. As a part of its preparations, Georgia Energy mobilized further employees from throughout the trade to reply. Mobilized crews throughout the state pre-positioned restoration employees, gear, and provides close to areas of anticipated affect together with further transformers, poles, cables, wires and different gear. Hurricane Helene had a statewide affect and Georgia Energy matched that with a statewide response, together with engagement of each Georgia Energy crew initially of the storm and hundreds of further lineworkers from outdoors of Georgia. All that is a part of advance planning and technique to permit the corporate to revive energy extra rapidly and effectively for its prospects as quickly as climate circumstances permit.

The corporate continues to make the most of further assets from outdoors of its system together with help from Alabama Energy, Mississippi Energy and dozens of different firms. The response power at the moment engaged is bigger than the corporate’s response to different main hurricanes together with Michael, Irma and Zeta.

Georgia Energy can be a member of a nationwide mutual help community, which consists of a whole lot of utilities from across the nation. Georgia Energy has proactively mobilized crews from dozens of firms from states together with California, Florida, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas, in addition to Canada. The corporate continues to amass further outdoors assets to assist in response.

As at all times, the corporate encourages prospects to maintain security first following Hurricane Helene:

• Look ahead to Georgia Energy crews working throughout the state. If driving, transfer over one lane for utility automobiles stopped on the aspect of the highway “ it is the regulation in Georgia.
• Look ahead to downed wires. Downed energy strains could also be hidden by particles or fallen timber.
• By no means contact any downed wire or try to take away tree branches from energy strains “ it could actually kill.
• Do not step in standing water or saturated floor the place downed strains could also be current. They could possibly be electrified.
• Keep away from chain hyperlink fences. They might be electrified by a downed line out of sight and conduct electrical energy over nice distances.
• By no means try repairs to electrical service connections. Prospects must also word that if their house, together with the meter field or mast/connection level, is severely broken repairs could have to be made by an electrician earlier than Georgia Energy can reconnect energy.

Instruments You Can Use to Keep Related & Knowledgeable

• Outage Alerts “ Prospects subscribed to our free Georgia Energy Outage Alert service will obtain customized notifications and updates through textual content message. Examine that your contact quantity is updated to obtain the most recent data.
• Outage & Storm Heart “ Obtainable at www.GeorgiaPower.com/Storm, prospects can go to this web site to examine their contact data is up to date to obtain Outage Alerts, report and examine the standing of outages, and entry helpful security suggestions and knowledge. Prospects may also report and examine the standing of an outage 24 hours a day by contacting Georgia Energy at 888-891-0938.
• Outage Map “ Housed throughout the Outage & Storm Heart, Georgia Energy’s interactive Outage Map supplies close to real-time data, permitting customers to see the place outages are occurring throughout the state and observe estimated restoration occasions.
• Georgia Energy Cellular App “ Obtain the Georgia Energy cell app for Apple (NASDAQ:) and Android gadgets to entry storm and outage data on the go.
• @GeorgiaPower on X (Twitter) “ Observe @GeorgiaPower on X for storm suggestions, outage updates, customer support and extra.

About Georgia Energy

Georgia Energy is the most important electrical subsidiary of Southern Firm (NYSE: SO), America’s premier power firm. Worth, Reliability, Buyer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the corporate’s promise to 2.7 million prospects in all however 4 of Georgia’s 159 counties. Dedicated to delivering clear, secure, dependable and reasonably priced power, Georgia Energy maintains a various, progressive technology combine that features nuclear, coal and , in addition to renewables corresponding to photo voltaic, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Energy focuses on delivering world-class service to its prospects daily and the corporate is acknowledged by J.D. Energy as an trade chief in buyer satisfaction. For extra data, go to www.GeorgiaPower.com and join with the corporate on Fb (NASDAQ:) (Fb.com/GeorgiaPower), X (X.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power).