To report an outage, call
1-800-448-2383
6 am Monday Outage Update: Crews Continue Power Restoration
Blue Ridge Energy line technicians continue power restoration work Monday for 169 members without power as of 6 am.
The number of members affected jumped up slightly overnight as snow continued to fall in the mountain counties of the cooperative’s service area, causing additional issues. Currently affected are 55 members in Ashe County, 68 in Wilkes County and 46 in Caldwell County.
Over a foot of snow fell in the cooperative’s service area, but the effects were most damaging in Caldwell and Wilkes counties where temperatures were slightly warmer, causing a heavier, wet snow that brought down trees and limbs. Approximately 150 locations of the electric system were damaged from the storm.
Line crews began power restoration after outages started at 2:47 am Sunday. The height of the outages was 2,269 members impacted at noon Sunday.
Crews faced the challenge of working their way into impassable areas, driving on dangerous road conditions with snow up to line truck bumpers and often walking long distances with snow above knee level to reach system damage causing the outages.
Blue Ridge Energy reminds members to report all outages by calling 1-800-448-2383 or by using the Blue Ridge Energy mobile app. Outage updates are available on the cooperative’s live outage map at www.BlueRidgeEnergy.com or on the mobile app.
The cooperative reminds the public to stay far away from downed power lines as they can still be energized and therefore dangerous, even deadly! Report downed lines by calling 1-800-451-5474. Only a trained line technician should ever go near a downed power line.
Blue Ridge Energy serves some 76,000 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.