Last Updated on June 14, 2013 8:31 am
Linemen with Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation worked into the night to repair damage to power lines and poles caused by a summer storm late Thursday afternoon.
Outages began around 5 p.m. and were concentrated primarily in Caldwell County where the storm brought down trees and power lines and led to several broken power poles. A total of 4,000 members were affected . At 11:30 p.m., linemen were still working to repair damage in 43 different locations in the Dry Ponds area to restore power to 239 members.
In Watauga County, 2,365 members were affected, with more than 2,000 in the Bamboo and Tweetsie Railroad areas. Scattered outages affected Deep Gap, Hound Ears and Sherwood communities. All power was restored in Watauga County by 11:30 p.m.
In Ashe County, 682 members in the Warrensville area and 74 more scattered across the county were affected by downed trees and tree limbs on power lines. All were restored Thursday night.
In Alleghany County, a single location that was damaged by a tree falling on power lines caused nine members to be without power early Thursday evening.
Members can report outages by calling the cooperative’s PowerLine at 1-800-448-2383. As a safety reminder, stay far away from downed power lines because they can still be energized and therefore dangerous or even deadly! Only a trained lineman should handle a downed power line. If you see a downed power line, call any Blue Ridge Electric district office to speak to a member services representative to report the location.
To check outage status at any time, Blue Ridge Electric offers an online outage map at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com. Outage preparedness and safety tips can also be found. Updates are also available on the cooperative’s social media sites at: www.facebook.com/blueridgeemc and www.twitter.com/blueridgeemc.
