RALEIGH – North Carolina’s electric cooperatives are reporting 55,600 outages as a result of the winter weather. Line crews are responding to outages as quickly as possible. Counties experiencing the most outages are Davidson, Iredell, Orange and Randolph.
Line crews from unaffected areas of the state have been dispatched to help with restoration efforts in the hardest hit areas. EnergyUnited (Statesville), Piedmont Electric (Hillsborough), Randolph EMC (Asheboro) and Surry-Yadkin EMC (Dobson) are receiving assistance from crews of Blue Ridge EMC (Lenoir), Brunswick EMC (Shallotte), Edgecombe-Martin County EMC (Tarboro), Halifax EMC (Enfield), Pee Dee EMC (Wadesboro), Pitt & Greene EMC (Farmville), Rutherford EMC (Forest City), Tri-County EMC (Dudley) and Union Power Cooperative (Monroe).
The deployment of crews is part of a mutual aid agreement shared between the nation’s nearly 1,000 electric cooperatives to help one another in times of emergency. Electric cooperatives across the country use the same line system engineering standards, which means line crews from any part of the country can quickly help sister cooperatives with restoration efforts.
In winter storms outages can occur when ice-laden trees and limbs fall and come in contact with power lines. Consumers are reminded to STAY AWAY from downed or sparking power lines and report any that you may see immediately.
Electric cooperative members should call their cooperative directly if they experience a disruption in power. For phone numbers to report outages and the counties served by each co-op, refer to www.ncelectriccooperatives.com/co-ops/coopList.htm.
North Carolina’s electric cooperatives serve more than 2.5 million people in 93 of the state’s 100 counties.