(JEFFERSON, GA. Oct. 12, 2018) Early Friday morning, 29 Jackson EMC linemen and other personnel headed to south Georgia to assist with restoration efforts in areas affected by Hurricane Michael.

Jackson EMC will assist with power restoration efforts for members of Grady EMC. The south Georgia electric co-op serves more than 19,000 meters in Brooks, Colquitt, Decatur, Grady, Mitchell and Thomas counties. As of 9 a.m. Oct. 12, Grady EMC reported 16,477 outages across its service area; 86 percent of its meters.

The storm greatly damaged their electric distribution infrastructure. Jackson EMC linemen will assist with replacing a reported 400 broken utility poles. In September 2017, with the support of other cooperatives and contractors, Jackson EMC linemen replaced 186 utility poles on the Jackson EMC distribution system after Tropical Storm Irma impacted northeast Georgia.