EnergyUnited reports that as of 8:30 a.m. ET, approximately 29,000 members of the cooperative are without power. Ten of the 19 counties in its service area have been affected by outages from the latest winter storm. Iredell and Davidson counties have been the hardest hit.
“Ice and sleet in our service territory resulted in a large number of outages overnight and into the morning hours,” said David Schleicher, EnergyUnited vice president of engineering and operations. “Crews will work around the clock to restore power. We have requested assistance from other North Carolina cooperatives and we expect to see that help arrive today. We work systematically to make the repairs that will affect the greatest number of members first. Our goal is to restore power quickly and safely and we appreciate everyone’s patience while that occurs.”
EnergyUnited crews as well as regular contract crews from Sumter Utilities are working on the system to restore power. Additional crews from Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation and Sumter Utilities will arrive later today to assist in the effort.
EnergyUnited members are asked to call the cooperatives automated outage reporting line at 1-800-EUNITED to report outages. Members may obtain up-to-the-minute outage information at the storm center on EnergyUnited’s website (https://www.energyunited.com/storm_center2.asp.) Outage information will also be posted on the Cooperative’s Facebook and Twitter pages found at https://www.facebook.com/EnergyUnited and https://twitter.com/EnergyUnitedEMC.
If you or someone in your household has special needs or relies on electric-powered life support equipment and you are without power, we encourage you to consider alternative arrangements until power can be restored.
EnergyUnited reminds people to STAY AWAY from downed or sparking power lines and report any that you may see to your local electric cooperative IMMEDIATELY.