My fellow members,
Colquitt EMC is preparing for the imminent landfall of Hurricane Helene. We are carefully watching the strength of the hurricane and its projected path. As of this update, Helene will make landfall as a Category Three Hurricane somewhere in the Big Bend of Florida. As time has progressed the projected path has come closer and closer to the paths taken by Idalia and Debby this previous year. Both of those storms were devastating for Colquitt EMC. They each produced outages for the vast majority of our members. Given the relative strength of Hurricane Helene, we are concerned that there will be an even greater amount of damage from this event than the prior storms. I would like to remind our members of these two facts when it comes to major power restoration:
When it comes to performing work on our distribution system, we are prohibited from working from poles and buckets when the wind speed exceeds 35 mph. The safety of our line workers is paramount and that is an established guideline to ensure safety for our crews. When the storm hits our service territory, we will be unable to perform much work because of that restriction. Rest assured that we are standing on “GO” when that wind speed drops below 35 mph.
We believe we are experienced and proficient in clearing our power lines and restoring service to our damaged system. However, as we experienced with Hurricane Idalia and Debby, many roads became impassable, and that requires county and state road crews to perform clean-up before we can enter and begin our restoration process.
We continue to ask for prayers for all employees and members, for their safety and security. We feel that we have made all the preparations that we can to be ready to restore service. Your patience is greatly appreciated. God bless you and please be safe.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO