Blue Ridge Electric Prepares for Severe Winter Weather

Lenoir, North Carolina (February 4, 2010) –Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation is monitoring severe winter weather scheduled to hit western North Carolina and employees are prepared to implement the cooperative’s emergency power restoration plan in the event outages are caused by the storm.

Line technicians are topping off fuel supplies, checking safety equipment, chains for trucks and items like chain saws that are sometimes needed to remove trees and limbs from power lines or to provide road access to reach outage locations.

Engineers, work management staff and other employees are monitoring weather conditions as well as power load to ensure safe and rapid response. Member service representatives are also ready to take phone calls and process reports of outages if needed. All employees are on high alert and ready to respond should outages occur.

If members experience an outage they should call the cooperative’s Powerline at 1-800-448-2383.

For severe weather preparedness tips or to view a live outage map, visit www.BlueRidgeEMC.com. Updates and information can also be found on Blue Ridge Electric's Facebook page.

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