A strong line of storms marched across the Southeast the latter part of last week ushering in sunny skies and warm weather—ideal conditions for linemen to begin restoration efforts after brutal winds caused widespread outages. Avoiding the brunt of the system, Carroll EMC dispatched crews to co-ops up north.

“The timing of the front was advantageous because our crews had not left work for the day,” said Jarrod Kilgore, System Engineering Supervisor for Carroll EMC. “Our linemen were out in the field until 11 p.m. restoring just over 2,600 outages across our service area.” 

By Saturday morning, one eight-man crew was on its way to Tri-State EMC, located in North Georgia, and another six-man crew to South Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (RECC), headquartered in Somerset, KY. All 14 linemen are now at South Kentucky RECC restoring power to the remaining few thousand consumers which peaked at 35,000 at the height of the storm.

“We’re seeing the same damage everywhere,” said Russell Williams, Foreman for Carroll EMC. “The wind gusts took down large trees, many falling into power lines and breaking poles. Some jobs take longer than others, and when you’re in the final stretch, fixing one pole may only restore power to a few Members. We’re working long hours to get everyone’s power back on.”

Carroll EMC crews are joined by five sister cooperatives assisting with storm cleanup. They will likely stay in Kentucky through the end of the week.