Blue Ridge Electric Expects Restoration to Ninety Percent of Affected Members Today

For Immediate Release

Contact: Grey Scheer, Director of Community Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 759-8994.

Lenoir: (April 17, 2007 10:00 AM) - Blue Ridge Electric linemen and contractors continue outage restoration efforts today with additional assistance from several crews from sister cooperatives in North Carolina and Georgia. With fresh crews and additional manpower, Blue Ridge believes that ninety percent of all outages will be restored by the end of the day.

According to Robert Kent, Director of Operations, the number restored today may be even higher: “We are continuing to work the outages that affect the largest number of our members. There are many outages that affect just one or two homes. We will get to these outages last but we will get their power back on as soon as possible.”

The continued high winds have resulted in several repeat outages and a greater number of broken poles are being discovered. Caldwell County has experienced the greatest number of outages and broken poles since early Monday morning. Currently among the 2,873 members without power, 1,192 are from Caldwell County; 1,032 from Watauga County; 536 from Ashe County; and 114 are from Alleghany County.

Blue Ridge Electric employees are also among those without power. Several employees have been working around the clock without power at their homes or with severe damage to their homes or property. “We understand how difficult it is to be without electricity for any length of time and particularly overnight in the cold. We’re members, too. We appreciate the understanding of our members during difficult outages like this one,” Kent continued.

For your safety, Blue Ridge Electric reminds all individuals to stay away from downed power lines since they can still be energized and therefore, dangerous or even deadly. Even if your power has been restored there may still be downed lines in your area as new outages are continuing to occur and caution is still advised. Contact Blue Ridge Electric or call 911 if you see a downed power line. Fortunately, there have been no reports of injury as a result of a downed power line.

Members that have not already reported their outage are encouraged to call Powerline, the cooperative's automated reporting system, at 1-800-448-2383 or contact their local district office (Caldwell: 828-754-9071; Watauga: 828-264-8894; Ashe: 336-246-7138; Alleghany: 336-372-4646; Wilkes: 336-838-4655). Blue Ridge Electric is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Blue Ridge Electric is a member-owned electric cooperative serving some 70,000 members in northwest North Carolina, including, Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Alexander, Wilkes and Avery counties.