To report an outage, call
1-800-448-2383
Blue Ridge Energy Line Technicians Battling Historic Weather and Outage Conditions: Multi-Day Outage Event Expected Due to Damage
Line crews are cutting their way through fallen trees across Blue Ridge Energy’s service area to reach damaged outage locations.
Blue Ridge Energy line technicians are working tirelessly to restore power to over 60,000 members in unprecedented weather and outage conditions in western North Carolina. The cooperative advises members that full power restoration could take several days due to the extent of damage and continuing conditions today as trees continue falling due to saturated grounds from historic rainfall totals across the service area.
“The damage is worse than what we saw with 2009 ice storm and comparable to Hurricane Hugo, which previously were the most damaging storms in our cooperative’s history,” said Renee Walker, director of public relations. “Flooding, mud slides and downed trees are blocking access to many of the damaged locations we need to reach to repair lines, replace broken power poles and rebuild some sections of the electric system. Line crews are using chainsaws and removing a multitude of downed trees to reach damaged locations, often in very remote areas,” Walker added. “In many cases, more trees are falling onto power lines just as we get power restored. Crews are working in very dangerous conditions and damage is continuing as trees fall from saturated ground.”
Members are advised to be prepared that restoration will take several days due to the extent of system damage, roads that are washed away in some locations and a number of inaccessible areas until flooding subsides.
Safety of line crews and the public is paramount for the cooperative. Downed power lines can still be energized, and therefore dangerous or deadly! The cooperative warns the public to stay far away from downed lines. Only a trained line technician should ever go near a downed power line.
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. Outages cannot be entered via 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.
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