REC will restore nearly all outages related to the ice storm by Tuesday evening, although some outages might linger into Wednesday.
REC crews, contractors, mutual-aid crews, vegetation management team members and other field personnel made additional progress today, bringing total outages down to about 1,500. At the peak of the storm, more than 22,000 member-owners were without power.
Crews will continue working into the evening. More than 200 workers are tackling the remaining outages, which is tedious and time-consuming. Many events require multiple lengthy repairs such as pole replacements, each of which can take several hours. During the day, crews continued to find additional broken poles and damaged cross-arms, bringing the total number of broken poles up to over 40.
Crews have restored most of the larger outage events, where a repair would restore service to 50 or more members. Many of the remaining 250-plus outage events involve outages affecting only a handful of member-owners, so a time-consuming repair might restore service to only a few homes.
“We appreciate the patience of member-owners who remain without power at this time,” said Casey Hollins, director of communications and public relations. “The crews and contractors are committed to restoring all service as quickly and safely as possible. They are giving their all to make sure they can get the lights – and heat – back on for all those who remain without power.”
