SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – On Sunday, Georgia EMC announced they are seeing considerable progress, but EMCs are expecting several more days of outages, with the hardest hit areas expected to be out of power at least a week or more.
Since restoration efforts began, EMC says fixed-wing planes and helicopters have flown the state’s transmission lines to assess and locate damage. The extent of the damage seen is unprecedented, according to EMC, including hundreds of trees on transmission lines and toppled towers.
Georgia Transmission reports that 80 of the more than 100 electrical substations that were knocked out by Helene are now at full operation.
Electric service is unable to be delivered to individual homes and businesses until long-distance, high-voltage transmission facilities are brought back online. As Georgia Transmission works on those repairs, EMC says crews continue work on the distribution side, repairing lines in preparation to receive power as substation and transmission lines come back on.
This damage is reportedly extensive on distribution lines as well, with thousands of broken poles, countless trees on lines and broken wires that need to be replaced.
To increase the momentum of restoration efforts, several EMCs on the lesser impacted western side of the state have restored power in their service areas and are sending crews to EMCs in east Georgia. This is in addition to the crews that arrived in advance of Helene and immediately following the storm’s exit from Georgia.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association reports Hurricane Helene knocked out power to an estimated 1.25 million co-op members in the U.S. and is proving to be one of the most consequential storms in the 87-year history of electric cooperatives.
While everyone’s circumstances are unique, EMCs recommend those dependent on electricity for medical needs relocate to an area with electricity, secure a generator from a friend or neighbor, or seek help at a local medical facility. EMC says they are doing everything possible to restore power, but do not want anyone to remain in a dangerous situation if the wait for restoration is longer than expected.
Currently, statewide outage numbers have dropped to approximately 259,000 EMC customers without power as of 12:30 p.m. Sunday. This is down from approximately 435,000 following the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
