The aftermath of Hurricane Helene has decimated much of western North Carolina and line crews working to repair and replace much of Blue Ridge Energy’s 8,000 miles of power line across seven counties is ongoing to restore power to over 44,000 members are without power as of noon Sunday.
The cooperative serving Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Caldwell counties as well as parts of Wilkes, Avery and Alexander counties has all if its line technicians and crews from sister cooperatives, tree and construction workers in the field, totaling 150 line workers. Blue Ridge Energy is awaiting arrival of crews from other states to double that number today in the hopes of expediting efforts to cut their way through downed trees, cut new roads where possible to reach damaged system locations and repair or replace power lines and poles that have been destroyed or severely damaged.
“Crews are actively sawing their way in to reach areas of the electric system that must be repaired, or the lines or broken power poles replaced in order to get power flowing,” said Renee Walker, director of public relations. “Many locations are inaccessible: paved roads are collapsed, mudslides continue to occur, and flooding remains an issue,” she added.
“Hurricane Helene is one of the worst events that I've seen in my career—worse than Hurricane Hugo in 1989,” said Doug Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Ridge Energy. “We're working as hard as we can around the clock to restore electricity to everyone, and we won't stop until every meter is turned back on,” Johnson said.
Blue Ridge Energy advises members that power restoration will be a multi-day effort, lasting into next week, due to extensive damage from the storm that the entire western part of the state is battling. Damage assessment continues by helicopter and drones—the only way to view some inaccessible areas.
At the height of outages on Friday, 63,000 Blue Ridge Energy members were without power. Line crews have made progress although the extent of damage continued to increase over the weekend as flooding and mudslides continued and trees continued falling due to oversaturated ground.
Blue Ridge Energy issues a strong warning to the public that downed power lines can still be energized, and therefore dangerous or even deadly! The cooperative warns the public to stay far away from downed lines, which can be hidden underneath downed trees, water and other affected structures. Only a trained line technician should ever go near a downed power line. Blue Ridge Energy is assessing damage and members can also report downed lines by calling 1-800-451-5474.
While Blue Ridge Energy is aware of outages and system operators are monitoring conditions, members should only report outages by calling PowerLine at 1-800-448-2383, by using the Blue Ridge Energy mobile app, or, by texting OUT to 70216. Outage reports cannot be accepted over social media. Outage status is available 24/7 on the cooperative’s live outage map at www.BlueRidgeEnergy.com and on the mobile app.
Blue Ridge Energy serves some 80,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany counties as well as parts of Avery, Alexander and Wilkes counties. Learn more at www.BlueRidgeEnergy.com or on the cooperative’s social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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