The first Tropical Storm warning in Cherokee County’s history led to downed limbs and widespread power outages, but the area was reportedly free from serious accidents and injuries.
At the peak of the widespread outage, Blue Ridge Mountain EMC had 21,000 meters without power following tropical storm-force winds and rain that rolled through our area Thursday.
The dispatch office, engineers and crews immediately hit the ground to assess the damage and begin power restoration. Most of the damage came from fallen trees and limbs on power lines and broken power poles.
Some of the hardest hit areas included Suches, Rainbow Springs, Aska, Spur 60 and Owltown in Georgia; as well as N.C. 60 and Shooting Creek in North Carolina. Evening efforts continued to shrink the number of power outages to 9,520 meters as of Friday morning, when some neighborhoods in Bellview were without electricity for about an hour.
Elsewhere in Cherokee County, there was a low-severity accident Thursday on Collett Creek Road, which was closed for about six hours afterward, according to Emergency Management. From 7:15-10:35 a.m., 911 dispatch received 78 calls for service.
No injuries were reported as a result of the storm, although at least two homes were damaged by fallen trees. Several other trees and power lines fell as a result of heavy winds.
Emergency Management said some trees were even wrapped by power lines, and power meters were pulled from several homes. The driver’s license and license plate renewal office in Andrews closed Thursday due to loss of power, while officials with the Cherokee County Department of Social Services worked from home due to loss of power at the building in Ranger.
In Blue Ridge Mountain EMC’s service area, there are more than 6,200 miles of electric distribution lines spread across mountainous terrain, rivers and creeks, which complicates restoration efforts.
Blue Ridge Mountain EMC’s first step is to restore power to the greatest number of people possible. Broken power poles take several hours to repair and are the most time consuming.
Final assessment numbers are not available. For details, visit brmemc.com.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Zeta’s powerful winds cut power to more than 500,000 Duke Energy customers at the height of the storm, including all of downtown Andrews on Thursday for several hours. As of 5 p.m., 369,000 customers – 264,000 in North Carolina and 105,000 in South Carolina – remained without power.
“I want to thank our customers for their patience as our crews work to safely restore power as quickly as possible, while also adhering to safe work practices,” said Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy’s Carolinas incident commander. “We know this is a difficult time for customers to lose power, as many are working from home and attending school remotely due to the pandemic.”
Multi-day power restoration work is underway across a widespread area. For details, visit duke-energy.com.