Giving Thanks

Friday, September 1 @ 3 p.m.

As we put Hurricane Idalia in the history books, thank you to of all our OREMC employees for a job well done. The supreme effort put in by our lineman and mutual aid crews to get the lights back on for 26,000 members in less than three days was nothing short of spectacular. They were supported behind the scenes by their fellow employees who made sure the crews had what they needed from hotel rooms, food, supplies, snacks or just a place to rest for a minute before getting back at it.

A special thank you to the following cooperatives/contractors who worked alongside us:

Coweta-Fayette EMC, North Georgia EMC, Appalachian Electric Cooperative, Fayetteville Public Utilities, Osmose Utilities Services, PIKE Electric, Asplundh Tree Experts, LLC, Kendall Vegetation Services, Kenergy and Prosource Utility Contractors.

There continues to be a handful of outages/trees on lines that crews are responding to. #ThankALineman

Final Phase

Friday, September 1 @ 9 a.m.

We are entering the final phase of clean up and power restoration relative to Hurricane Idalia. Crews worked well into the night to bring as many members back on line, such that we have just 84 members still with out power. What remains are the "end of the line" and tap line outages affecting just one to two members. Crews are actively working these outages and the expectation is to have all power restored by early afternoon.

Storm Update

Thursday, August 31 @ 5:30 p.m.

Operations Manager Travis Page talks about the recovery and restoration efforts following Hurricane Idalia that left 26,000 members without power. That number is now down to less than 2,000 affected members thanks to our OREMC crews and the 200+ helping hands in mutual aid.

Restoration Efforts Continue

Thursday, August 31 @ 9 a.m.

Our offices remain closed, and service disconnects have been suspended, until Tuesday, September 5.
At dawn OREMC crews, along with 200+ helping hands in mutual aid, rolled out to continue recovery and restoration efforts.
At its peak, OREMC had 26,000 consumer-members without power immediately following the storm. By 10 p.m. Wednesday, OREMC had reduced the number of members without power to 9,200.
We have widespread damage across our system, but Charlton County and Baker County have a higher concentration of system damage.
The crews will maximize daylight hours to address and restore as many outages as we can today. But this will be a multi-day restoration event.
Safety is OREMC’s number one priority as all crews work to restore power as quickly as possible.

“We understand it is frustrating for our members to hear it could be days, not hours, before their power is restored,” Michele Hutchins, OREMC’s Communications/Marketing Coordinator noted. “But the sheer number of outages, combined with the necessary clean up and debris removal required before power restoration can begin, means these outages are labor and time intensive. Hurricane Idalia was a CAT 1 hurricane when it blew across our service area with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph.”

OREMC reminds its consumer-members to:

Be mindful of downed trees, limbs and lines—assume any wire on the ground is a power line and live.
If you have a generator, make sure you know how to safely use it: don’t wire directly into your household wiring, don’t operate it inside your home or overload it.
If someone in the home relies on power for medical reasons and you don’t have a generator and/or haven’t already sought shelter elsewhere, it would be advisable to do until power is fully restored.

Storm Recovery Begins

Wednesday, August 30 @ 5:30 p.m.

Now that Idalia has moved out of our service area, our crews are once again fully operational. They also have the help of several mutual aid crews from around the state of Georgia that have arrived to assist with our recovery and restoration efforts.

Nearly 22,000 members are without power. Damage assessments are underway.
As expected, we have numerous trees down, trees and limbs on lines and lines down, as shown in the picture.
Additionally, we have several transmission line outages that we don’t know the severity of at this point in time. Transmission outages have to be restored by Georgia Transmission Corp. before we can identify and begin to assess downline outages on our distribution system.
This will be a multi-day restoration event as trees and debris have to be cleared before lines and poles can be replaced/restored.
As mentioned above, we have secured significant manpower resources to assist. About half have arrived this afternoon and the remainder will be here tomorrow morning.
Our offices will remained CLOSED and service disconnects are suspended until Tuesday, September 5.
Our next update will be posted at 9 a.m., Thursday, August 31.

We know that extended outages are frustrating. We appreciate members’ patience as we work to restore power as soon as possible in the midst of these challenging conditions.

Outages From Idalia

Wednesday, August 30 @ 12:30 p.m.

As our outage map indicates, we have over 11,000 members without power as a result of Idalia impacting our service area. Our southern operations have ceased due to deteriorating conditions and life-safety concerns for our crews. At the moment, OREMC crews are still responding to outages in our northern communities, but will be pulled back as conditions worsen. Idalia is believed to be a high-end CAT 1 as it moves across Waycross and damaging winds are expected to linger into early evening. Major storm restoration will not begin until after the stormed has passed and damage can be assessed. Stay safe.

Idalia Makes Landfall

Wednesday, August 30 @ 9:40 a.m.

Final preparations are being made to stage and be ready to respond in the wake of Hurricane Idalia. We are expecting 141 extra sets of hands in Mutual Aid from contractors Pike Electric, Prosource Utility Contractors, Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC and Kendall Vegetation Services, as well as our sister co-ops Coweta-Fayette EMC, North Georgia EMC and Appalachian Electric Cooperative. Based on the 9 a.m. briefing from NWS JAX, now is the time to “hunker down.” Idalia has made landfall and is trekking inland NNE. Our entire OREMC service area is under a tornado watch until 3 p.m. #StaySafe

Phone Alert Apologies

Wednesday, August 30 @ 7:45 p.m.

It has been brought to our attention the phone alert we issued yesterday at 3 p.m. called members twice and/or called during overnight/early morning hours. Neither should have happened and we won't issue any additional phone alerts. Our apologies for the disruptions and any concerns it may have caused.

Extended Power Outages Expected

Tuesday, August 29 @ 11 a.m.

Hurricane Idalia is expected to make landfall as a CAT 3 hurricane on the west coast of Florida tomorrow morning. Based on the latest forecast, it will cross over the Florida/Georgia line about midday still packing hurricane-strength winds. The storm will cause significant damage to the OREMC distribution system as a result of falling trees, tree limbs, etc.

Power outages will occur, and members should prepare for this to be a multi-day event due to the anticipated strength of the storm as it passes through our service area. OREMC will be prepared to respond once the storm passes, and it is safe to begin the damage assessment process. We have extra mutual aid and right of way crews that will be staged tomorrow and ready to assist us in restoring power as quickly and safely as possible.

“We understand preparing to be without power for days instead of hours is unsettling, but we want to help best manage our members’ expectations—and have them be prepared—given the forecasted strength of Idalia and damage it is expect to cause,” explains OREMC Communications/Marketing Coordinator Michele Hutchins.

Things to keep in mind:

Make sure the phone number you use to report an outage is listed on your OREMC account. You can update your account through the Member Portal. This enables us to associate your call with a specific location. Report outages by calling 800-262-5131.
If you or someone in your family depends on power for medical reasons, now is the time to figure out where you will go (friend/relative/shelter) to ride out the storm, or use a generator.
If you have a generator, make sure you know how to safely use it: don’t wire directly into your household wiring, don’t operate it inside your home or overload it.
Be mindful of downed trees, limbs and wires after the storm.
OREMC will post regular updates on Facebook and Instagram regarding our restoration efforts. DO NOT report outages on social media. You can also view our online Outage Map.
Review information online about storm preparedness and how power is restored.

Hurricane Idalia