Jackson EMC is assisting with power restoration efforts at Lee County Electric Cooperative in North Fort Myers, Florida, where heavy rain and strong winds from Hurricane Ian resulted in widespread power outages. As of Wednesday, October 5 at 6 a.m. more than 121,000 or 55% of LCEC’s customers remained without power.  

 Thirty-two Jackson EMC crew members will take several trucks and equipment and join line workers from across the country to work alongside LCEC line crews to safely restore power to the six counties in LCEC’s service area. Cooperation among cooperatives is one of the principles all co-ops share. Jackson EMC provides fellow co-ops assistance with power restoration efforts following major outages.  

 “Cooperatives work to help each other. During Tropical Storm Irma in 2017, a very memorable storm in our co-op's history, linemen from Georgia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina and New Jersey provided us support and manpower, just as we are now doing for LCEC. That’s cooperation among cooperatives at its best,” said Joe Dorough, vice president of engineering and operations.  

 Jackson Electric Membership Corporation, the largest electric cooperative in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation, is headquartered 50 miles northeast of Atlanta in Jefferson, Ga. The cooperative serves more than 250,000 meters on 14,700 miles of energized wire. For more information, visit jacksonemc.com.