Outage Restoration Continues Through the Night
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 (March 1, 2009, 10:00 p.m. update) - Line technicians for Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation are working throughout Sunday night to restore power outages remaining in Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany counties after severe winter weather this evening.
At 10 p.m., 5,000 members were affected by an outage in the substation serving the Sherwood community. Prior to that outage, a total of 1,000 members had been affected at the height of Sunday's power interruption. Heavy wet snow on power lines and high winds were the primary cause of the outages, which began around 2 p.m. and had crews working in at least 41 different locations to fix damages and restore power.
As of 10 p.m., no outages were experienced in Caldwell County. In Watauga County, 130 members in the Laurel Fork area of Watauga County were still experiencing outages as of 10 p.m. in addition to the Sherwood outage. In Ashe County, where the majority of the day's outages occurred, 375 members were without power in the Water Tank Road, Ellis Road and Metal Knob areas. In Alleghany County, 500 members were without power in the High Meadows and Twin Oaks communities.
If an outage occurs, members should call the cooperative's Powerline at 1-800-448-2383.
The cooperative reminds members that downed power lines are a possibility during severe weather and that these lines can still be energized and therefore dangerous or even deadly.
In addition to outages, Blue Ridge Electric asks members to report downed power lines immediately to the cooperative. Everyone except trained Blue Ridge Electric should stay far away from downed lines. And try to keep others far away until line technicians arrive. No one except a trained Blue Ridge Electric line technician should ever try to remove or handle a downed power line.
If a power line falls on your vehicle while you're inside, you should stay in your vehicle until emergency personnel arrive to assist.
For outage updates at any time, visit BlueRidgeEMC.com and click on the “outage map” link which is located on the left hand side of the screen.
Blue Ridge Electric is a member-owned cooperative utility serving some 73,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, and Alexander counties. Find more safety and outage preparation information at BlueRidgeEMC.com.
