This online news website is owned and operated by Becky Watts. If you enjoy reading Pike County Times, consider buying an advertisement for your business or sending a donation to support the only free online newspaper in Pike County. Donations can be sent to: The Pike County Times, PO Box 843, Zebulon, Georgia 30295. Click here to donate through PayPal. Thanks for supporting Pike County's only free online newspaper!
BARNESVILLE - SRE crews are working hard with the help of the North Carolina crews from Lumbee River EMC and East Coast Electric to restore power for the remaining 27 members. During this process the numbers on the outage map may fluctuate because in some cases, power has to be temporarily cut from an entire line in order to safely reconnect one service.
We are proud of our employees for their hard work and determination and ever so grateful for the help of all the co-ops and contractors who came to our aid. We anticipate full restoration this afternoon unless a member has damage to their home or the service entry panel that must first be repaired before we can safely reconnect power.
Update 9.15.17 at 8 p.m.
Power was restored to the last 3 members at 7:11 p.m. We sincerely appreciate everyone's patience and cooperation throughout the entire restoration process.
Update 9.14.17 at 5 p.m.
Crews are steadily making progress with only 322 still affected at 5 p.m. but progress will likely slow through the night as they are encountering more broken poles and downed lines that serve a small number of homes or individual houses. They will continue working to get as many restored as possible but some may remain out tomorrow.Breakdown by county:
Bibb – 48
Crawford – 31
Lamar – 17
Meriwether – 48
Monroe – 49
Pike – 90
Upson – 16
We appreciate our employees' hard work as well as all the help from additional crews and thank our members for their patience and cooperation throughout the week.
According to a tweet that went out this morning, 106 linemen are working across the entire territory with many from out of state who have come in to help get power restored.
[Note from the Editor: I'm making a point to stop and say thank you to EMC employees when I see them. The same goes for AT&T employees. How about you?]
Update 9.13.17:
SRE’s linemen have now joined forces with 81 additional linemen and contractors from North Carolina and Indiana co-ops as well as Utilicon and Harper’s Tree Service. Outages are down to 6621 as of 3:30 p.m. and crews will work into the night to restore as many possible. With crews totaling 106 linemen and personnel, SRE hopes to restore power for the vast majority of its members by Thursday but advise some members will likely remain without power into Friday.
The number of EMC customers without power statewide is 187,000, down from 550,000 at the peak of Tropical Storm Irma. Georgia’s co-ops are being assisted by crews from 14 states as of today but may increase in the days ahead.
Update 9.12.17: 2:35 p.m.
Crews have restored power for an additional 2385 members since 10 a.m. leaving a total of 10,165 still without power. They are working non-stop and will continue until everyone has been restored. With the help of additional crews coming to assist today and tomorrow, we hope to have the majority of our members restored by Thursday, provided there is no damage to the service entry on the house. If the service panel has been torn away from the side of the house or is damaged in any way, the homeowner will have to make the necessary repairs before SRE can reconnect the service.
Unfortunately, we cannot predict when any particular street or neighborhood will be restored. The crews are working from the substation all the way out to individual homes. Rural systems such as ours have miles of distribution lines that run through heavily wooded areas to get to some homes. So fallen trees coupled with saturated ground can make it challenging to get heavy trucks into the affected areas.
Rest assured, crews are working as quickly as possible but there are many obstacles that can delay progress. We also urge everyone to remember the "Move Over for Linemen" law went into effect on July 1, 2016 requiring any motorist approaching utility linemen at an active work site, as indicated by traffic cones or flashing beacons, to change lanes or reduce their speed to a “reasonable and proper speed” below the posted speed limit. Violators face a $250 fine.
9.12.17
As of 10 a.m. today the total number of EMC (electric membership cooperatives) members without power across the state was 428,000 and Georgia Power reported 870,000 or roughly half of the residential customers.
Work will continue around the clock in an effort to restore everyone as quickly as possible. outage.southernriversenergy.com:82/