This scene is happening time and time again on Walton EMC’s electric grid because of Hurricane Irma. Replacing a pole with this much hardware is a resource- and time-consuming repair.

TOTAL ACCOUNTS:
125,355

ACCOUNTS WITHOUT POWER AT HEIGHT OF STORM:
48,000 (38 percent of all accounts)

ACCOUNTS REMAINING WITHOUT POWER:
5,397 (95+ percent of customer-owners are currently online)

EXPECTED RESTORATION OF ALL ACCOUNTS:
Late Thursday or Friday

DAMAGE ASSESSMENT:
Destruction to trees and power poles is heavy. Numerous broken poles are hampering the restoration process. We have counted 70 broken poles and are finding more. Replacing a broken pole is a resource- and time-consuming repair.

This unusual and unprecedented storm affected every part of our service area.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:
If your power is on and simply blinks, please do not call or use our website to report it as an outage. This adds unnecessary data to our outage management system and slows down progress.

If your lights blink ­– even two or three times – it means the protective devices on our grid are doing what they were designed to do. If your power stays on, do not report blinks.

SUPPORT FROM OUTSIDE CREWS:
Visiting crews are assisting in restoration efforts from several states including North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia. Walton EMC is also being assisted by Monroe Utilities and several contractors.

INFORMATION:
waltonemc.com
facebook.com/waltonemc
bit.ly/wemc_outage_map

WALTON EMC SERVICE AREA:
10 counties from Stone Mountain from Athens
6,977 miles of lines
125,355 accounts

STAY AWAY FROM ALL DOWNED WIRES!