Last Updated on October 29, 2012 5:04 pm
Employees of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation remain on high alert, ready to respond should outages occur tonight as high winds and severe weather from Hurricane Sandy hit northwest North Carolina.
Line technicians restored 400 outages that occurred throughout the day Monday as a result of high winds causing trees on power lines and broken poles. As of 4:30 p.m., linemen were restoring the final 37 members affected by the day’s outages. Linemen, member service representatives and other employees will remain on call and ready to respond throughout the night due to predictions for the most severe weather to occur Monday night and into Tuesday.
Crews from sister cooperatives including Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation are also arriving this evening to assist with power restoration if needed.
Blue Ridge Electric reminds members to report all outages to the cooperative’s PowerLine at 1-800-448-2383.
The cooperative also reminds the public to be aware of the dangers of downed power lines, which can still be energized. Coming into contact with an energized line could produce a serious injury or even death. No one but a trained line technician should handle or be near a downed power line. The public should report downed power lines by speaking with a cooperative employee by calling any local Blue Ridge Electric office or at 1-800-451-5474.
To view a live outage map at any time, visit www.BlueRidgeEMC.com and click on the “outage map” link located on the bottom right hand side of the screen. More safety and preparation information is also available in the “Storm Room” at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com.
Information can also be found on Blue Ridge Electric's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/blueridgeemc.
