Power outages continue to spread across Georgia as Tropical Storm Helene makes her way through the state.
Helene, a Category 4 hurricane nearly 500 miles wide, made landfall in Florida late Thursday. It is one of the largest hurricanes to hit the state. The storm was downgraded to a tropical storm as it quickly made its way inland.
As of 8 a.m, Friday, Sept. 27, Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility, reported over 700,000 customers without power. Georgia EMCs reported another 436,000. In Northeast Georgia, around 55,000 GA Power customers and electric co-op members were without electricity for the same time frame.
“In addition to damage to EMC power distributions lines, Georgia Transmission Corp. reports that high-voltage transmission lines and substations have been affected,” Georgia EMC, an association representing the state’s co-ops, said. “As soon as it is safe to do so, efforts will be underway to safely access downed electric transmission lines and properly assess the damage.”
The statement continued, “Due to high winds and heavy rains, this storm caused widespread damage to trees, power lines and power poles. In many cases, trees will need to be cleared from roadways before line workers can access outages.”
Georgia Power activated more than 10,000 personnel Thursday. The company says they are on the ground ready to respond to the outages as soon as it is safe to do so.
