Thursday, August 8, 2024 – 9:50 AM
A Message from Our President/CEO
My fellow members,
We certainly have had several days with a lot of work. From Monday afternoon when the winds subsided and allowed us to begin work until now, it has been roughly two and a half days. At the height of the storm, we had 42,000 meters without service. We currently have 95 meters without service.
Working through large outages is not something we like to experience. With the hard work of our crews and support personnel at Colquitt EMC, we believe we have been as successful as possible in restoring service. It is easy to sound optimistic after the event has occurred. But I will share with you, that I was not optimistic when this began.
We are grateful for all the help that we received from additional contract and mutual aid crews and the support and help of local government, law enforcement, first responders, and emergency management agencies. We would not be successful without their help.
Thankfully, I am not aware of any injuries that occurred to our working personnel. That is always a concern when working on an outage of this nature. I believe in the power of prayer and I appreciate the prayers of all of our members. Our number one responsibility is to provide electric service to our members. At a time when other EMCs are looking at other business models, I will tell you that Colquitt EMC is solely focused on providing the best possible electric service. Once again, thank you for your support during this time. We will cross our fingers that we have met our storm quota for the summer.
Over the next few days, please let us know if there is anything else that needs our attention regarding your electric service. We will continue our restoration effort until service is restored to all members.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO
Wednesday, August 7, 2024 – 4:30 PM
A Message from Our President/CEO
My fellow members,
Work has been moving along at a very brisk pace. We are making progress throughout our system in restoring service. Currently, we show 2,450 outages on our map. We hope to draw that number down even lower between now and the end of the evening. The amount of damage we have encountered has been consistent. We believe the pace at which we are getting lights back on will continue. Nothing would please us more than to have all the lights back on for all our members.
I would like to make a request. As we are drawing the number of members without service closer to zero, we want to make sure we are responding to all members who are without service. There are many ways that we understand if a meter has service to it or not. One way is that we ask the member to report their outage. If you still do not have power, please report it again via mobile app, outage line, or online portal so we can ensure that everyone is accounted for.
We want to thank you again for your patience. We recognize that living without electricity in the heat and humidity is aggravating. Have confidence that we are doing all that we can do to get the lights back on as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO
Wednesday, August 7, 2024 – 10:00 AM
A Message from Our President/CEO
My fellow members,
We are now two days after the landfall of Hurricane Debby. Several good things to report.
Our in-house crews have been working since Monday afternoon when it was deemed safe to go out. We received mutual aid and most of our contract crews yesterday. As of today, the full complement of contract crews arrived this morning and joined the restoration effort.
Other positive news: initially we had 42,000 of our 73,000 meters without service. Our outage system regularly tabulates the number of outages that we have on our system and their location. Most of the time the tabulation is current and accurate. However, there are times when the tabulation is lagging the real-world results. An example of this was last night when our system was showing an outage of 17,000 meters. This number remained constant throughout the evening. This morning at about 6:30 our IT department was able to reboot the system, and we are down to 4,500 outages. This number of outages is currently correct.
We will continue working in all areas of our system to restore power. We are also cycling manpower so that we have skilled technicians working overnight as well. We thank you again for your support of our efforts and your prayers for our employees and our membership.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO
Tuesday, August 6, 2024 – 4:00 PM
A Message from Our President/CEO
My fellow members,
We now have 6 crews from other EMCs and 30 contract crews. As soon as these workers arrived, they immediately began working to help restore power to our membership.
In addition, the company, Storm Services, built a temporary housing area with beds, bathrooms, showers, laundry, food, and fuel for 500 personnel members. All things needed to support our contract labor force in getting the lights back on. This is the first time that Colquitt EMC has utilized Storm Services to help meet our needs. They certainly provide a quality service for all the linemen, and it allows us to focus on restoring power to our members.
We are continuing to work around the clock to restore power to our members. These extra crew members will certainly help that process. Although this was a hurricane and there were some very negative circumstances surrounding it, it is much different than what we experienced with Idalia.
We will provide another update tomorrow morning. I ask our members for their continued support of our personnel. That support means so much to them. Your support and your prayers are always appreciated.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO
Tuesday, August 6, 2024 – 8:30 AM
A Message from Our President/CEO
My Fellow Members,
We are in our second day of life with Debby. When we first saw the proposed track Debby would take, it looked strangely familiar with what Idalia did last year. After Hurricane Idalia, it took a little over a week to restore power to our members. Although Debby has followed the same path there is good news. The amount of damage is significantly less than Idalia.
At our peak with Idalia, we had some 58,000 meters out of 72,000 meters without service. As I reported to you earlier with Debby, we had 42,000 out of 73,000 meters without service. Other indications of the amount of damage inflicted by Debby are readily seen when we gather all the information together. I have a feeling of optimism about how soon we will be able to get power restored to all members.
Today is a significant moving day. We expect more than 250 contractors to arrive at Colquitt EMC at some point today. In addition, we. Expect some 65-70 mutual aid personnel from other EMCs to arrive today. So, to summarize where we are this morning, our outages have dropped from 34,000 last night to 22,000 this morning. We have easily three times more manpower than we do regularly.
We want to thank you for your continued patience and prayers as we work to safely restore power to all members.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO
Monday, August 5, 2024 – 6:30 PM
A Message from Our President/CEO
My Fellow Members,
We are happy to report the winds have died down below the 35 mph threshold for most of our service area and personnel can go out and work safely. At the height of the storm, Colquitt EMC had 42,000 of 73,000 meters without service. Currently, we have 34,000 meters without service and some 15 circuits open at substations across our system.
Anytime you take a direct hit from a hurricane, there will be damage, a lot of work, and extended outage times. However, we have been proactive at Colquitt EMC. We have our personnel already working and the additional contract labor will start tomorrow morning. We are hopeful that we will see a speedy restoration of service to our members. We will have crews working around the clock in all affected areas, and we will not stop working until power is restored to all. As of right now, the outages are scattered throughout the system with the heaviest damage in Lowndes County.
Thank you to all members for your continued patience and prayers as we work to restore service.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO
Monday, August 5, 2024 – 2:30 PM
A Message from Our President/CEO
My Fellow Members,
Giving you a brief update this afternoon. It is difficult to give an update on the tropical storm with its effects still upon us and our system. We have experienced winds in the 30-mph range with gusts above that. Our outage map indicates some 35,000 meters currently without power. That is indeed a large number, but there are some reasons to feel optimistic.
When we began to hear about the possibility of Hurricane Debby coming into the gulf and making landfall in the Big Bend area, our normal inclination was to go back one year and think about Idalia. In some respects, Debby is like Idalia. The path is similar, location is similar. But we can tell you that the damage is very different in comparison between the two storms. We have yet to be able to visit all locations throughout our system, but based on what we have seen so far, we believe we have roughly 75 broken poles. With Idalia, we had roughly 500 broken poles across our system. Our outages today are caused more by wind, lightning, and tree limbs falling onto power lines.
We are doing what we can throughout our system to restore power, but that is difficult with the wind blowing as it has been. When the sustained winds get below 35 mph, we will be allowed to perform more consistent work. We are deeply concerned about any outage that is being experienced by our members. We are optimistic that once this storm leaves our area and we can begin work in earnest we can then restore power quickly to our membership.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO of Colquitt EMC
Monday, August 5, 2024 – 8:40 AM
A Message from Our President/CEO
My Fellow Members,
I wanted to take the time to give you an update on what is now Hurricane Debby. This storm made landfall south of Tallahassee, FL, and has a projected path to come through Colquitt EMC’s service territory. It appears to be following the same path that Hurricane Idalia took last year.
In 2024, electric reliability is more important than ever before. Therefore, we at Colquitt EMC make decisions to ensure that reliability. Unfortunately, we cannot predict the future. We must plan for the worst and hope for the best. Last week, we began mobilizing ourselves to prepare for Hurricane Debby. In addition to our 120 in-house personnel, we have called upon 400 extra contract workers to provide us with extra manpower. We have also made preparations to accommodate the additional contract labor.
If you experience a power outage, please report it by using our free mobile app, online portal or by calling 1-855-293-1804. Reporting outages on the app is especially easy, and you can insert a brief comment about any downed lines, broken poles, or transformer issues that may help expedite the restoration for all. An outage with a brief comment may also be reported by logging into your account on www.colquittemc.com.
For more information on how to prepare your home or business for a hurricane, please visit www.ready.gov. You may also view forecast updates on www.weather.gov/tae. Please keep an eye on our social media pages and our website for more updates from Colquitt EMC.
I would also like to remind all members, that if you encounter a downed power line, please do not approach it or attempt to move it yourself. Please contact your local office with the service address where the power line is located.
We truly appreciate the patience of our members. We will keep you updated throughout the day as we have more information.
Sincerely,
Danny Nichols
President/CEO of Colquitt EMC