Blue Ridge Electric Restores All Power
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Corporate Communications, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (11:00 a.m., December 6, 2002) –
Line crews for Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation worked throughout the evening to “get the lights on” for 2,726 cooperative members who lost power during one of the most severe ice storms in several years. All power is now restored to Blue Ridge members.
While Watauga County’s 344 members affected by the storm were restored with power by mid-day Thursday, the county experienced a new outage this morning at12:12 a.m., with 69 people in the Hattie Hill community losing power. All but 20 people affected were restored with power by 6:30 a.m. and due to heavy fog, linemen were walking the lines early this morning to detect the problem in order to restore power to the remaining members. Power was restored to the remaining 20 by 10 a.m.
Caldwell County experienced the largest number of outages during the storm, with a high of 1,623 members without power at noon Thursday. The outages were concentrated in southern Caldwell County.
In Ashe County, 242 members were restored with power on Wednesday. In Alleghany, crews worked throughout Thursday night to get power back on for 517 members who were affected by the storm.
In Wilkes County, approximately 200 members were affected by the outages.
With most of the cooperative’s power restored Thursday afternoon, Blue Ridge Electric released several of its crews to assist sister cooperative Rutherford Electric Membership Corporation which experienced large numbers of outages due to the storm. Rutherford EMC serves counties including Burke, McDowell, Lincoln, Polk and Mitchell. An additional 5 employees were sent today to assist Central Electric Membership Corporation today. Central EMC serves Randolph, Moore, Lee, Harnett, and Chatham counties.
Blue Ridge Electric’s home heating fuels subsidiary, Blue Ridge Energies, continued to remain open and delivering propane, kerosene and home heating fuel where roads were passable. The Lenoir office on 110 Nuway Circle remained open to fill propane cylinders for customers. In addition, the commercial gasoline area of the business continued deliveries to gas stations during the storm.
Blue Ridge Electric serves some 64,000 consumers in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes and Alexander counties. Blue Ridge Energies provides home heating fuels and commercial gasoline to Caldwell, Catawba, Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany counties.
Back to Top
