Hurricane Helene Update

Friday, September 27, 2024 – 3:30 p.m.

A Message from Ron Marshall, President/CEO

As of 3:30 p.m. today, we’ve made significant progress in restoring power following Hurricane Helene’s impact this morning. Currently, 6,331 Walton EMC members remain without power, down from a peak of nearly 24,000 earlier today.

I want to provide a focused update on our three office locations:

• In our Gwinnett County service area, 3,867 members are currently without power. Our crews are working diligently to restore service, focusing on the areas with the highest concentration of outages first.

• In our Walton County service area, 991 members are experiencing outages. While the total is lower, we understand that each outage represents families and businesses impacted, and we’re actively addressing the damage.

• In our Oconee County service area, 229 members are without power. We’re making steady progress in this area and continue to see improvements in the coming hours.

While Hurricane Helene has hit our service area hard, we recognize that some of our fellow cooperatives in the southeast part of the state are facing the daunting task of restoring service to much of their entire systems. Our thoughts are with these cooperatives and their members, and we stand ready to offer assistance once we’ve restored power to our own service area.

We understand how challenging it is to be without electricity, especially after a major storm. I want to assure our members that we are working diligently to restore power to our members and will continue to prioritize safety above all else, both for our personnel and our community. Our crews are out in full force, following our time-tested restoration plan.

We prioritize repairs based on restoring power to the substations and main trunk lines, the backbone of our system. This process restores service to the greatest number of members initially before moving to smaller tap lines and individual services. While this approach may mean some members see crews pass by without stopping, it’s the most efficient way to get everyone’s power back on.

For your safety and to help us work more efficiently:

• Please stay away from downed power lines and our work areas
• Use caution when driving near our crews
• If using a generator, ensure it’s properly connected to avoid backfeeding the power lines, which can endanger our lineworkers

The fastest way to report outages or get status updates is through our website or mobile app.

We appreciate your continued patience and support during this challenging time. Rest assured, restoration efforts will continue until every member has their electric service restored.