In response to requests from storm-damaged areas, Jackson EMC dispatched a line crew and released four Pike Electric Inc. contract crews to areas of central and west Georgia where power restoration work continues.

“We had several hundred of our more than 200,000 customers without power at times during the evening storms, but the middle and west Georgia co-ops got hit a lot worse than we did,” said Dwayne Ansley, Director, Operations Services. “We were carefully monitoring both weather conditions and our system, and once we were in the clear, we were ready to help those who needed it.”

The requests for assistance came in around 11:30 p.m., after storms moved across Georgia with high winds, hail and lightning causing damage to local power distribution systems and leaving thousands in the dark. The four Pike Crews, comprised of 28 men, went to assist with restoration efforts at Central Georgia EMC, while a Jackson EMC crew of 8 took a convoy of five vehicles from Lawrenceville headed to Carroll EMC west of Atlanta. The crew from Lawrenceville joined additional crews from Snapping Shoals, Walton, Amicalola and North Georgia EMCs in restoring power on the Carroll EMC system.

At the peak of the storm, Carroll EMC, had roughly 10,000 members without power, and crews were still attempting to restore power to around 5,000 meters as of 8 a.m. this morning.

Though Jackson EMC’s service area dodged the worst of the storms, the weather event served as a reminder that with spring just around the corner, storms with high winds and lightning will likely become more frequent in the months ahead. Jackson EMC customers can report or view the status of outages on our system on a smartphone, tablet or PC device at any time by logging on to www.jacksonemc.com/outage.

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