Massive power outages left in wake of roaring wind, heavy rainfall
It took only minutes for Saturday’s storm to sweep through Clay and neighboring counties, leaving behind fallen trees, massive power outages and a price tag estimated at $750,000 for power restoration. On the plus side, no injuries were reported in Clay County.
Final numbers were unavailable as of Tuesday evening, but an assessment of the damages revealed 33 broken poles throughout the Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation system which encompasses 6,100 miles of electric distribution lines, according to a news release from EMC spokesperson Kelly Crawford.
“Most of the damage came from fallen trees on power lines and broken power poles,” said Crawford.
At the peak of outages, about 15,000 meters were without power. In Clay County, there were 4,205 outages which was about the same as Towns County with 4,045. The largest outage area was Union County, Ga. with 4,976. Fannin County also had about 2,000 outages.
When asked how Blue Ridge EMC learns where power outages occur, Fred Gray, director of operations, said, “Our SCADA system picks up outages immediately on the power grid and we begin assessing how widespread the outages are before calling in crews. Until we get ‘bird dogs’ out in the field to observe the areas, we really don’t know the degree of damage done.”
Kelly said power restoration began as soon as the storm passed and “it was safe for BRMEMC crews to assess the damage and begin work.”
When asked how BRMEMC determines priority in restoration efforts, Kelly explained the process. “The first step was to restore power to the greatest number of people possible,” she said. “Which meant that we started at the substations and worked our way down mainline three-phase circuits, paying particular attention to feeds with critical infrastructure attached, such as hospitals, county facilities and the like. Blue Ridge EMC then worked to repair taps leading off the mainline circuits and finally service lines to individual homes. Broken poles took several hours to repair and were the most time consuming.”
By midnight on Saturday, about a third of the power was restored and by early Sunday morning the number without power had dropped to 6,800. Within 48 hours power was restored to nearly all the customers, a feat that was accomplished by EMC employees working around the clock in what was described as “rough terrain.” Additional crews were called in to assist Blue Ridge EMC crews. Assistance came from Murphy Electric Power Board, Central Georgia EMC, Hart EMC, Walton EMC and Jackson EMC.
Blue Ridge EMC General Manager Jeremy Nelms expressed appreciation to his employees and to the EMC membership.
“It is often difficult for our members to understand how a storm of relatively short duration can cause so much physical and monetary damage to the BRMEMC electric and fiber systems,” he said. “I cannot express my gratitude enough to the employees of BRMEMC for their hard work and perseverance during this significant outage event. I also want to offer our most sincere thanks to the crews that came from outside our area to help.
“Finally, I want to thank the membership for their support and encouragement.”
In Clay County, Emergency Management Director Ricky Lancaster had been monitoring the impending storm as well as checking on the county in the aftermath. Lancaster said he saw mostly broken poles and downed trees.
“It was reported that winds were 60 to 70 miles per hour. I kind of believe that. It had to be up there,” he said.
Lancaster also serves as the EMS director. In that capacity he said there were no storm-related medical calls that day. When asked about peo- ple who have special medical needs, such as oxygen, that could be affected by the power outage, Lancaster explained that they have a special needs register that
they update constantly.
“For example we have an agreement with Interstate Welding to go get three or four portable [oxygen] tanks if we need it. People with special needs will usually call us if they need something, but we didn’t receive any during this storm.”
Residents might be surprised to learn how prepared our Emergency Management program is. “We’re a storm ready community,” Lancaster said. “Any kind of natural disaster, we’ve got a plan and it’s updated every year and sent to the state. It’s a lot of work, but we’ve got a plan for everything.”