Outage Numbers Decreasing

Watauga County: 1,592; Ashe County: 27

Lenoir, North Carolina (December 29, 2009-4:30 p.m. update) - Outages are decreasing as line technicians continue working to restore power to 1,592 members of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation still without power in Watauga County as of 4:30 p.m. today. There are 203 different sources of the outages in Watauga County left where lines and poles have been damaged and line technicians are working to access and repair.

Only 27 members in Ashe County remain without power and linemen also continue working here this evening. As final outage locations are repaired, there may be single residence outages that would be difficult to detect; therefore, members in Ashe County are asked to contact the cooperative if they're at the service location and still do not have power by calling 246-7138 or 1-800-448-2383.

As crews complete work in Ashe County, they are moving immediately to the Watauga County restoration effort.

More than 25,000 members were without power at the height of the outages after the worst ice storm in recent history hit the High Country on Christmas day.

The ice storm not only damaged about half of the cooperative's 7,000 miles of power lines, it also brought down massive amounts of trees, further damaging power lines and leaving behind 150 broken poles. Many of the remaining outage sources where the system is damaged are in remote areas of rough, mountainous terrain. In some cases linemen must use bulldozers to get through debris which means power poles must be set primarily by hand without the assistance of line trucks, which is much lengthier process.

"The things that make our mountain districts beautiful-the many trees, hillsides and rough terrain-also make it more difficult to restore power after such a severe weather event that has torn down so much of the system," said Renee Whitener, director of public relations.

"A large number of crews from 11 other utilities responded to our request for help and more than 300 linemen are working on power restoration," she continued. "We want to thank everyone who has had a part in feeding and housing all our line technicians so that they can continue to work in these tough conditions. Many of them have been here since Christmas morning, working long hours to get the rest of the power restored as quickly as possible," she added.

Assisting Blue Ridge line technicians are crews from neighboring cooperatives Rutherford, Randolph, Piedmont, EnergyUnited, UnionPower, Pee Dee, Lumbee River, and Central EMC, and Blue Ridge Energies as well as crews from Pike Corporation, Carter Utility Services and Asplundh Tree Expert Company.

The ice storm and falling trees also pulled down power lines. The cooperative reminds the public that downed lines can still be energized and therefore dangerous or even deadly. Stay far away from downed lines and report them by calling Blue Ridge Electric at 1-800-451-5474.

Members in Watauga County with special medical or life support needs should contact their local emergency management office for assistance at (828) 264-4235 or call the American Red Cross at (828) 263-2639.

Members can view outage updates at any time by visiting www.BlueRidgeEMC.com and clicking on the "outage map" link. Outage updates and other information is also available on the web site as well as on Blue Ridge Electric's Facebook page.

Blue Ridge Electric serves some 73,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, Avery and Alexander counties.