Blue Ridge Electric Prepared to Respond if High Winds Lead to Outages

Lenoir, North Carolina (February 9, 2010) – With weather predictions calling for wind gusts of up to 70 miles-per-hour and blizzard conditions in the mountains, employees with Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation are on high alert status should power outages occur this evening and into Wednesday.

High winds are a concern due to tree limbs possibly blowing into power lines or trees falling on power lines. Grounds are saturated with the amount of rain and snow that’s fallen during the past month, making trees more susceptible to falling, especially if root systems are not strong. Blizzard conditions may also pose problems since visibility will be reduced and wind levels will be sustained.

If outages occur, members should report them by calling the cooperative's automated outage reporting system known as Powerline at 1-800-448-2383. To view outage updates, visit www.BlueRidgeEMC.com and click on the "outage map" link located on the lower right hand side of the screen.

It’s important to remember that during periods of high winds downed power lines are a strong possibility. Downed lines can still be energized and therefore dangerous or even deadly! Think safety first and stay far away from downed power lines and report them immediately to Blue Ridge Electric. When reporting a downed power line, the cooperative prefers to speak directly to a member in order to get specific location information. The number to report downed power lines is Blue Ridge Electric’s general toll free number: 1-800- 451-5474.

Members can view outage updates at any time by visiting www.BlueRidgeEMC.com and clicking on the "outage map" link located in the lower right hand corner. Helpful tips are also available on the web site as well as on Blue Ridge Electric's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/blueridgeemc.

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