An aerial photo by the GA State Patrol of GA Power crews working in Dawson County
Electrical service knocked out by Monday’s ice storm in northeast Georgia has almost been fully restored. Crews from HEMC and GA Power worked through gusty winds and sub-freezing temperatures Wednesday to turn on the power for thousands left out in the cold by widespread outages. The outages were caused when ice took down trees and power lines.
At 5 am Thursday approximately 1900 HEMC members remained without electricity. Just over 1,000 GA Power customers were still without.
HEMC County by county
Habersham 916
Hall 300
Lumpkin. 85
Rabun. 2
White. 440
HEMC expects to have power restored to all sometime today.
GA Power county by county
Banks: 42
Hall 956
Lumpkin 21
Ten additional crews from cooperatives throughout the state have assisted with HEMC’s restoration efforts. The crews are made up of 51 workers from Blue Ridge Mountain EMC, Central Georgia EMC, Coweta-Fayette EMC, Flint Energies, Ocmulgee EMC and Southern Rivers Energy. Contractor crews were also been brought in to assist with tree removal.
Nicole Dover with HEMC says some efforts were hampered by the large number of trees brought down by the ice. Power crews had to cut their way into areas in order to work on downed lines.
Both HEMC and GA Power expect to have power fully restored today, just ahead of another round of wintry precipitation that’s expected to fall in northeast Georgia Friday and Saturday. See More Snow/Ice Coming?
