Nearly All Power Restored by Blue Ridge Electric
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 (4 p.m., December 27, 2002) –
While linemen made progress on restoring the remaining power outages left over from a Christmas Day wind storm, two separate accidents have left another 125 members of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation without power in Ashe County this afternoon.
In one accident, a truck hit a utility pole off East Buck Mountain Road. No details are available at this time on the second accident. Linemen are on the scene attempting to restore power in Ashe County.
In Watauga County, which experienced the highest number of outages, linemen continue working to repair lines and poles in 43 different locations to restore power to a remaining 166 members.
Wind gusts of nearly 80 miles-per-hour and related tree damage to poles and lines knocked out power to nearly 10,000 members by late Christmas Day. Blue Ridge Electric linemen responded immediately after calls began coming in just before noon Wednesday.
The cooperative extends special appreciation to all who worked on power restoration efforts the past few days. In addition to some 75 linemen and technical staff, the cooperative thanks the following who sent contract crews to assist: Energy United, Rutherford Electric Membership Corporation, Pike Electric, Davis H. Elliott, and Carter Construction companies.
Blue Ridge Electric serves some 64,000 consumers in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany counties, as well as portions of Wilkes and Alexander counties.
To report an outage at any time, call Blue Ridge Electric’s Powerline at 1-800-448-2383.
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