No Outages as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday: How to Report an Outage if Needed

For Immediate Release

Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383, Ext. 3213; or E-mail: Renee Whitener

Lenoir, North Carolina (January 17, 2008) – As of 3:30 p.m., members of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation have full power despite falling snow and wintry weather in our area.

Blue Ridge Electric employees continue on high alert and ready to respond if outages occur. To report an outage, call Powerline, the cooperative’s automated outage reporting and account information system, at 1-800-448-2383. Have your account number, address, and telephone number of the affected location nearby in case it’s needed.

Members can also call any of the local Blue Ridge Electric offices to report an outage. Those numbers are: Caldwell County: 754-9071; Watauga County: 264-8894; Ashe County: 246-7138; Alleghany County: 372-4646; Wilkes County: 838-4655

If you see downed power lines, think “safety first”:

Stay far away from downed or dangling power lines. Assume that any line is conducting electricity and therefore dangerous or even deadly. Contact Blue Ridge Electric immediately if you see a downed power line. Try to keep others away from downed lines if possible. Finally, never drive a car over a downed power line. Call for help and wait for professional, emergency personnel to assist you.

Blue Ridge Electric is a member-owned cooperative utility serving more than 70,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, and Alexander counties. Find more information at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com.