Saturday Power Outage Update From Georgia Power

Press release from the City of Peachtree Corners:

10/31/2020

Following is a message from Georgia Power representative William Edwards with an update on restoring power to the area. For any questions, please contact Mr. Edwards directly. His email address is listed at the bottom of his message.

Georgia Power continues damage assessment and restoration efforts and has already restored electric service to nearly 675,000 customers following Hurricane Zeta. As of 1:30 p.m. Friday, approximately 172,000 customers are without power across Georgia.

Damage from Hurricane Zeta is similar to the damage seen after Hurricane Michael impacted the state in 2018. As Hurricane Zeta crossed through the state, Georgia Power's service territory experienced wind gusts of up to 75 mph for more than two hours, along with sustained winds of 25-40 mph for more than five hours straight. As damage assessment continues, damage reports include more than 350 broken poles, 120 damaged transformers and 1,600 spans of wire down. Teams continue experiencing challenges including downed trees and roads blocked that must be cleared to enter certain areas.

Locally we continue to make steady progress in repairing our system and restoring power to our customers. Despite limited resources due to the damage throughout the southeast, we have been able to get additional crews from contractors and other utilities to assist in our efforts. We have begun to move teams into impacted areas and are working to restore local outages. Currently we have approximately 61,000 customers without power in our region. Repair crews will continue to work into the night to restore power.

In the field, the power restoration process includes these key steps:

• Assessing Conditions – Responding crews – or in major storms, damage assessment teams – work to identify trouble spots and the resources needed to fix them, which could involve coming onto customers' property. Crews will employ appropriate distancing efforts and customers are asked to keep children and pets indoors and maintain safe distances from crew members as well.

• Making Repairs – Georgia Power crews focus on repairs that return power to the greatest number of customers in the least amount of time.

Damage Update – As of 1:30 p.m. Friday

• Power has been restored to nearly 675,000 Georgia Power customers across the state.

• There are approximately 172,000 Georgia Power customers currently without power.

• Approximately 4,000 cases of individual damage or trouble.

• Damage and outages are widespread and across much of the state.

The company encourages customers to keep safety first following Hurricane Zeta:

• Watch for downed wires. Downed power lines may be hidden by debris or fallen trees.

• Never touch any downed wire or attempt to remove tree branches from power lines; it can kill.

• Don't step in standing water or saturated ground where downed lines may be present. They could be electrified.

• Avoid chain link fences. They may be electrified by a downed line out of sight and conduct electricity over great distances.

• Watch for Georgia Power crews working across the state. If driving, move over one lane for utility vehicles stopped on the side of the road; it’s the law in Georgia.

William E. Edwards

External Affairs Manager

Georgia Power – Metro North Region |1453 Georgia Highway 120, Lawrenceville, GA 30043

weedward@southernco.com |www.georgiapower.com

This press release was produced by the City of Peachtree Corners. The views expressed here are the author’s own.