A Different Kind Of Power Than Our Normal Focus Here
Much of Georgia, from St. Mary’s to Trenton, is dealing with power outages today after Irma brought winds and rain to the entire state yesterday. Quite a few of our own contributors are without power and/or internet. Below is an update sent over from Georgia Power as of 11:30am Tuesday. For those who think they should be working faster, the attached photo is the sleeping arrangements for linemen – when they’re given a few random hours to sleep.
Damage Update – As of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday
There are nearly 770,000 Georgia Power customers currently without power.
More than 8,500 cases of individual damage or trouble (including broken poles and lines) the company is working to repair.Damage and outages are widespread and across the state with the hurricane impacting service to customers around Savannah, Columbus, Metro Atlanta and beyond.
EMC’s are reporting 428,000 customers w/out power, down from 466,000 as of 10 AM.
DETAILS ON RESTORATION EFFORT
~~~~~~~~~~~~• The EMC’s and GPC retained all their crews in Georgia, and staged them yesterday away from the coast for safety reasons.
• As the storm cleared south Georgia and high winds calmed, they went to work primarily in the southern part of the state.
• Many of the restorations from the peak were primarily in the southern part of the state yesterday evening.
• As winds calmed last evening in the northern part of the state, crews began additional work there.
• They are being supported by teams from across the country, and to a larger extent from utilities in Mississippi, Alabama, and the panhandle of Florida.
• As you saw, this storm had state-wide impact and unlike isolated ice storms for example, these outages are widely dispersed across the state.
• This is an unusual and wide-spread event that with take time for recovery.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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In North Henry County, we were without power for 23 1/2 hours. There are still some roads blocked by trees, but progress is steady.
Thanks for posting – most folks do not understand the amount of planning and logistics that go into storm preparations; and the human aspect when power company employees respond to a storm. As a co-op for GPC in the 70’s every employee was turned out for the “Great Southeastern Snow Storm” of February of 1973. https://www.weather.gov/ilm/Feb1973Snow We called ourselves ‘storm troopers’ – guess the term is now out of style.
Field crews put their personal lives to the side and work like dogs to restore power. More than once a linesman told me he did it because it could have been their parents stuck in the house down the street without power. Power company linesmen have ranked high in my view since I had a chance to support them during that storm. Anyone that think linesmen are not great folks – put yourself in their place of going out in an ice storm or a tropical storm to work in the weather under dangerous conditions rather than snuggle up in a nice dry bed. In ’73 I never heard any linesman complain or gross in the 5 days we worked we 16 hours a day.
Amicolola EMC currently shows 15 line crews struggling to get power back on for us – we have been without line incoming power for over 15 hours – we know those folks are working as hard as they can go to get the power back on under difficult conditions. When those guys finish getting our power on they will be dispatched to some other corner of Georgia or Florida to help others – their job of getting power back on will not end up here. Their long days of working outside, eating quick meals and sleeping on a cot are just beginning.
Thanks for posting the thread.
52 hours after leaving and 30 hours after the power went out, I got home and had power and cable/internet an hour later thanks to a power crewout of southeast Minnesota and northwest Texas.
48 hours in extreme North Gwionnett but thankful for no damage and a natural gas fired generator. Roads are still blocked after exiting the neighborhood but there are work arounds. It could have been much worse. Georgia Power has been commendable on all but their lack of updates (they are still assessing our problem even at this point), but that is a very minor quibble given what they are facing. Huzzah to them!
Our power in SW Atlanta never even went out, but some of my neighbors are saying (via my Nextdoor app) that they just got back up last night.