Georgia’s EMCs say they are making progress, but the worst-affected regions could be in the dark for a week or longer.
Sunday updates reveal lingering power outages after Hurricane Helene tore through the state. Despite round-the-clock efforts, many residents remain without essential services, bracing for an extended period of recovery.
⚡ Why It Matters: Hurricane Helene has left hundreds of thousands of Georgians without power, and full restoration may take days or even weeks in some areas. For many, these outages disrupt lives, livelihoods, and access to vital services.
🚁 What’s Happening: Georgia EMC, which serves the state’s rural areas, is battling unprecedented damage, with transmission lines ravaged by fallen trees and broken poles.
- Fixed-wing planes and helicopters are surveying the damage, revealing hundreds of downed trees and toppled transmission towers.
- 80 of the 100+ electrical substations knocked out are back online, but extensive repairs are needed before power can be restored to homes and businesses.
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🔌 Between the Lines: The road to recovery hinges on high-voltage transmission lines, which must be repaired before electricity can flow to individual homes. Until those systems are back up, EMC’s distribution crews are working to repair damaged local lines to receive power.
- Distribution lines are facing serious damage too, with thousands of poles needing replacement.
🚨 Catch Up Quick: Hurricane Helene knocked out power for over 1.25 million co-op members in the U.S., making it one of the most significant storms in the history of electric cooperatives.
- As of Sunday, the number of EMC customers without power had dropped to 259,000 from a high of 435,000.
🌍 The Big Picture: The rural areas of Georgia are taking the brunt of this storm’s aftermath, with critical infrastructure badly damaged. While progress is being made, the full restoration of power is a complex task that involves coordination across state lines and a surge of additional crews from lesser-impacted areas. As communities wait for relief, the reality of climate-related disasters and their impact on essential services continues to grow more severe.
