Hurricane Idalia Updates

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/6 5:30 PM

A Message from our President/CEO

My fellow members,

We are one week from when Hurricane Idalia rolled through our region and the outage restoration effort began. I want to begin this update by thanking all Colquitt EMC employees, contractors and mutual aid for their hard work that was put forth to help us in accomplishing this daunting task. I am so very grateful to each of these individuals. I am also grateful for the fact that we were able to accomplish the bulk of this work without incident or injury. That is always my biggest fear when bringing in additional help that may be unfamiliar with our system or our methods. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer, and I believe this power manifests itself over our communities and our efforts.

As many of you have watched our outage map and watched the numbers lessen day after day, today was a very good day. We have completed the bulk of the restorations to this point. However, there will be hiccups to service in some cases as we clean up those last remaining outages. Any amount of outages is not what we want. We strive to provide continuous service and any outage is concerning to us – whether is is affecting large commercial buildings on Bemiss Road or barns and shops located in our more rural areas. Each outage is taken seriously and all are a priority for us to restore power as soon as possible. We still have more work to perform. In our efforts to restore power in the shortest amount of time possible, there remains at each location the broken remnants of the distribution system that once stood there. Now we have to develop the plan on how to clean up those remnants. We will continue to provide information and details in the future as it applies to the aftermath of Idalia. Those details are numerous, and we will go through those as they become priority. It is our full intention at Colquitt EMC to keep our membership as informed as possible.

As I have thanked our employees, contractors and mutual aid, I would like to thank some others as well. Thank you to all city and county government officials, law enforcement, county maintenance and road departments, 911, county Emergency Management Associations and all others who have aided us in this restoration effort. We believe Colquitt EMC is a corporation that is formed on its mission, and that is to provide service to our members. We believe we provide a good service to our members, but this would not be possible without the strong support and guidance of our Board of Directors that represents each of the counties that we serve. We believe that we have the best Board of Directors in the state, and their attention and governance of our cooperative is invaluable to all of us.

My last thank you would be to you, my fellow members. I recognize that outages are a difficult thing to deal with. Now more than ever, the constant flow of electricity is even more vital in our interconnected world. We have a responsibility to provide that continuous flow of electricity, and we take this responsibility seriously. It is why we get up every day and that is our primary focus. We are thankful to the members for their patience, understanding and prayers, and we are always willing to accept guidance and suggestions as we move forward.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/5 3:00 PM

A Message from Our President/CEO

My fellow members,

I honestly wish that I did not have to come and provide an update 6 days after the passing of this storm, but the reality is Idalia has dealt a blow of destruction to our region. Therefore, updates are still necessary, and I want to be as forthcoming as possible with information on our progress.

If you recall at the initial passing of the storm, Colquitt EMC had over 57,000 of our 72,000 meters without power. The number has dropped significantly each and every day as our crews have diligently worked to restore service. We have flooded the Valdosta District with personnel. Last night, we had around 5,000 meters without power, and as of this morning, we had approximately 2,500 remaining. The vast majority of these meters are in the Valdosta District. Currently, we have approximately 1,600 meters without power. This constitutes true progress because these meters have been in the areas of absolute devastation.

We have frequently been asked when will power be back on in this or that area, and those are reasonable questions. We hesitate to answer on a system-wide basis because it is hard to know exactly. Given that we now have knowledge of the damage and resources in those areas, I can now state with confidence that the bulk of the 1,600 meters currently without power will be restored by tomorrow night. There will be some outliers that will require additional attention, and there are some members who may need to contact an electrician regarding a broken meter base before we can restore service to their homes.

I want to remind you that all of our personnel have been working 18-hour shifts day and night since last Wednesday. But in addition to the construction and right-of-way personnel, all of our other employees have been working behind the scenes. It has been all hands on deck since last Wednesday. Engineering, warehouse, member services – every employee at this co-op – has been on extended work hours either working or supporting those working on the outages.

If you were not affected by this outage, we ask for you to pray for those who were affected by the wrath of the storm and power outages. For the members who were affected and had to endure without power, we are grateful for your patience and you have been and will continue to be in prayers.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/4 2:30 PM

A Message from Our President/CEO

My fellow members,

We are into the 5^th day of restoration since Idalia devastated our service territory. We have some positive news to report. As you know, we had 57,000 meters without power at the peak of the outage. As of today, we are down to approximately, 5,800 meters without power. I am very pleased with the speed at which we are working and performing this restoration. We have already accomplished a great deal of work, but I understand we still have many members without power. We are continuing to push forward and restore power to all of our affected members!

As I have previously discussed, we have continued to bring in additional crew personnel to Colquitt EMC to assist us with restoration. At this time, I would like to thank and recognize the following crews and give you a breakdown of how much additional help we currently have.

16 Mutual Aid Crews:

• Mitchell EMC – 4 Crews
• Jackson EMC – 3 Crews
• Walton EMC – 2 Crews
• Diverse Power – 2 Crews
• Upper Cumberland EMC – 2 Crews
• Sawnee EMC – 1 Crew
• Carroll EMC – 1 Crew
• Amicalola EMC – 1 Crew

62 Total Contract Construction Crews:

• MDR – 46 Crews
• LineTech – 7 Crews
• Sumter Utilities – 6 Crews
• Power Grid – 3 Crews

43 Additional Right-of-Way Crews:

• Georgia Right-of-Way – 13 Crews
• Townsend Right-of-Way – 12 Crews
• PowerGrid – 11 Crews
• Cunningham – 5
• Mitchell EMC – 1
• Amicalola EMC – 1

The vast majority of these personnel are currently working in the Valdosta District as we continue to adjust our personnel to the work at hand. Given this fact, I believe that we will make exceptional progress. The areas we are now working in are some of the most devastated areas that have been experienced by this EMC. Our hearts go out to the members who are still without power. We do appreciate the members in support of our construction and right-of-way personnel. We will continue to give you updates on a daily basis. Have confidence that we think we are getting close to the completion.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/3 7:50 PM

A Message from Our President/CEO

My fellow members,

We have now completed four days of work after Hurricane Idalia tore through our service territory. Once again, at the height of the outage, we had over 57,000 meters without service. We currently have around 9,300 meters left to restore power. As progress continues, we are moving more resources away from the restored areas and into the most affected areas.

I would like to take a moment and do something different than my previous updates. On our social media pages, there are two questions that are being posed by members time and time again. I want to attempt to answer the two most asked questions:

First frequently asked question: Why do my neighbors have power and I don’t?

All electric utilities in the county operate a three-phase distribution system that involves three individual hot phases. All three are required to operate large machinery, but only one is necessary for residences or smaller applications. The majority of these three phase lines are overhead and each phase can be opened individually from an overload or fault – such as a tree on the line. This line, even though it begins and ends in the same place, is why one phase could be on while the others are off.

Second frequently asked question: Why does the city-owned or investor-owned utility have power restored to their customers and Colquitt EMC does not?

One major difference between city/investor-owned utilities and cooperatives like Colquitt EMC is the amount of miles of line they serve. City/investor-owned utilities have far fewer miles of line than the typical electric cooperative would have. Also, a city/investor-owned utility’s line density is much higher than that of a cooperative. They may have on average 20-25 meters per mile of line. For Colquitt EMC, our density on average is 7.6 meters per mile. In terms of line to serve customers, a city/investor-owned utility may have 1,000 miles of line to maintain or less. Because Colquitt EMC is a rural electric cooperative and we have to build further to serve rural communities, we have some 9,300 miles of line to maintain. Our lines are more susceptible to damage, because of the areas it exists in, such as hard-to-reach areas, forests, swamps, etc. City/investor-owned utility lines are typically in more urban and easier-to-access areas.

As time continues, we are restoring power to more and more meters. I recognize that there are still many members without power. Being without electricity is difficult and uncomfortable for anyone, especially in an extended outage. As I have mentioned before, these things unfortunately take time. We still anticipate this restoration effort to take several more days. If you or your family members are reliant on electricity, you may want to consider alternative plans for your household. We appreciate the continued patience of our members as we navigate this restoration effort, and we humbly ask for continued prayers for our personnel and those who are still waiting for power to be restored.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/3 2:20 PM

A Message from Our President/CEO

My fellow members,

I apologize for being late on my normal morning update. However, I am pleased to announce that progress continues. As you know, we began with over 57,000 meters without power at the peak of the outage. As of now, we have approximately 10,000 meters left to restore. That is a remarkable amount of work in a short period of time.

As we have repaired our system and restored service in lesser affected areas, we have been able to shift that manpower to the more devastated parts of our system that are in Lowndes County. The amount of damage in Lowndes County is far greater than anywhere else in our system. The more time we spend in these devastated areas, the more destruction we find in our system. The amount of trees that have been uprooted and fallen on our lines and broken poles is something we have not seen on such a large scale.

With this in mind, we made the decision to increase the manpower that we are currently working with. We are adding additional right-of-way and construction crews. The concern with the additional number of contractors has always been our ability to manage. However, given the density and close proximity of damage on a given line, one Colquitt EMC employee could easily manage up to three crews as opposed to the one we had originally planned for. As stated before, we have approximately 400 construction personnel. We are looking to add an additional 125 right-of-way and 125 construction personnel. We believe these steps will greatly expedite the restoration effort.

Once again, we are grateful to be able to serve our members. We are appreciative of the patience that has been shown, and we humbly ask for more patience as work to complete this restoration process.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/2 7:30 PM

A Message from Our President/CEO

We are approximately three full days into our Hurricane Idalia service restoration effort. We had over 57,000 meters without power at the peak of the outage, but I am happy to report we have restored power to approximately 37,000 meters in three short days. We continue to work in all counties to restore power. As we wind down in the less affected areas, more personnel will be available to shift into the more damaged areas. We are steadily moving personnel further to the south and east of our system.

As we have worked to restore service, more and more outages have been caused or are affected by fallen trees and debris. This is not only a problem for restoring power, but also a problem in gaining access to necessary areas. When dealing with significant amounts of right-of-way problems, it requires highly trained personnel to clear those trees safely and effectively. Therefore, we have brought in additional right-of-way crews and one will be assigned to each construction crew. This will greatly increase the speed at which we can restore service. In previous storms that Colquitt EMC has faced, we never considered the option of bringing in this many additional right-of-way crews. However, we have not experienced this amount of damage on such a large scale. That in and of itself has prompted us to take that action, and we are grateful to have access to those resources to provide this assistance.

As I close this update, I am grateful that all workers and to my knowledge all affected members are safe and unharmed. We have also had no reports of any incidents. We appreciate your continued patience towards our personnel in this restoration effort. I humbly ask for your continued prayers for your fellow affected members and for the personnel restoring power. When you have completed some 20,000 manhours of work in difficult and dangerous conditions, I truly believe that the power of prayer is what helps us to remain healthy and whole. Rest assured we are still here and we are still working.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/2 11 AM

A Message from our President/CEO

We are now 65 hours into our Hurricane Idalia Restoration effort. Up to this point, our personnel have logged an excess of 15,000 man-hours. As you know, the work has been difficult and the damage is widespread. We will continue to work on the 24-hour shift schedule until power is restored to all.

In my previous update, I tried to provide some additional information on the level of damage and devastation that we are facing. It was not my intention to increase the concern of one area over another or to indicate the priority of one place over another. I was hoping to provide a further description of the circumstances. I cannot be specific about the exact areas of damage with estimated times of restoration. There are too many variables to consider before we can know those answers with certainty.

However, we are certain the greatest amount of damage to our system occurred in the area east of I-75 and south of HWY 84 in Lowndes County. This certainly makes sense, because this area experienced the highest winds. Areas north and west of this area would be the 2nd most affected.

Our manpower has been distributed with approximately 1/4 in Colquitt and Brooks County, 1/4 in Tift, Cook, and Berrien County, and 1/2 of our total workforce in Lowndes County. As crews complete restoration in certain areas, we are continually moving those crews further and further into Lowndes County to bring the most manpower we have to the areas with the greatest devastation.

In Lowndes County alone, we have changed out 101 power poles as of midnight last night. That number alone is more than what we changed out for Hurricane Matthew when it affected our system.

One fundamental rule of establishing service is the principle of downstream. We must repair "upstream" facilities first before we can move into the more damaged areas "downstream." As we repair the heavily damaged areas, power is available to flow where it was repaired.

I appreciate your continued patience. Our number and only job right now is to restore power to all of our members. We want to do this in the most safe and professional manner possible. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/1 7:30 PM

A Message from Our President/CEO

My fellow members,

I was able to survey the damage to our service territory with my own eyes for the first time today. What I saw were significant areas where simple repair is not what we are facing in order to restore service. We are facing a total rebuild of distribution lines in some areas. When you compare and contrast a repair and rebuild, there are significant differences in the amount of time required.

As our crews work on the circuits and make repairs, they are coming across more and more areas of disrepair. Of course, this is not what any of us want to see or experience. Unfortunately, that is the reality of the situation of what we are facing.

In an earlier update, I mentioned we have over 400 personnel working to restore power. This number includes 10 additional right-of-way crews. These crews are specialized in the removal of trees and debris from our lines. As our restoration effort continues, our crews are working around the clock in shifts. As I have mentioned before, this is - unfortunately - not a quick-fix situation.

I recognize that everyone would love to have a definitive restoration time. At Colquitt EMC with some 9,300 miles of power lines and varying degrees of damage, I cannot forecast beyond a day or two. We are taking this restoration effort day by day. We will continue to provide updates to our members.

As I stated earlier, we have expended efforts to have all the resources here that we could possibly manage. I wish the membership could have seen those devastated areas of our system through my eyes as someone who has been in the utility industry for 40 years. In seeing this devastation, I recognize the amount of work that is required to complete the task at hand. As we continue to rebuild this system, we will continue to evaluate our methods and adjust when necessary to ensure that we are on the best course of action.

My heart goes out to all members, including many of our employees, who are facing these times without electric service. Our employees are members just like you, and we have all felt the effects of this hurricane. There is nothing that is more important to us than restoring power to our members. We appreciate your patience, and we humbly ask for your continued prayers for the safety of all who are working during this restoration effort.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 9/1 9:10 AM

A Message from our President/CEO

Good morning to my fellow members,

If you have looked at our outage map, you will see we currently have over 43,000 meters without power. During an outage like this, it is normal to see fluctuations in the number of meters without power. As I reported yesterday, we have brought in a large number of additional personnel to assist us in restoring service. In total, we have well over 400 individuals working on this restoration effort. With these numbers, we are scheduling work on a 24-hour basis, and we are able to rotate rest time for all outside personnel so they can continue to work safely.

I can tell you in all honesty that Colquitt EMC is doing ALL that we can to restore power as quickly as possible. The amount of manpower we have is the maximum number that we can effectively and safely manage. In outages like these, there is concern for the safety of the workers not familiar with our system. All crews that we have brought in have been assigned an experienced Colquitt EMC employee as a guide to work alongside them. This is the best way to ensure the safety and efficiency of our workers.

I have had the opportunity to speak with some of our workers, and I am pleased to hear of the kindness being shown to our personnel by our members. I appreciate our members for your understanding and support as we work to restore service. We will continue to update you as we have more information.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update - 8/31 6:45 PM

A Message from Our President & CEO

My fellow members,

CEMC continues to work on restoring power to all of our members. The damage has been widespread and we have had many challenges associated with restoring power. Some good news: as of 5:30 PM, transmission service was restored to our Nashville Substation. This station serves some 4,500 meters in central Berrien County. Work could not begin or be successful in any part of this area until transmission service was restored. As of 6:00 the only substation without transmission service remaining is our Valdosta substation. This station serves areas of Morven Hwy and Troupeville in Brooks Co and also parts of the northern side of Valdosta near the mall and Norman Drive.

Having service back at our substations is absolutely critical in restoring power. Here is a brief explanation of how we restore power during a large outage. Power is delivered to our substations through high-voltage transmission lines where it is then converted to a lower voltage that our EMC uses to distribute power. From our substation, power moves out through what we call circuits that serve an area. These circuits are then broken down into tap lines that serve individual areas. Power flows from high voltage down to the tap line. If there is a disruption of flow at any part of this sequence, the service will be affected downstream.

As of right now, we have approximately 40,900 meters without power. The number of meters is going down. We think the number will continue to decrease at an accelerated rate. As of this morning, we expected to receive 130 additional personnel to help restore service. We were able to better assess our situation and decided to call upon more resources. We now have an additional 320 personnel assisting us in restoring service.

I recognize that an outage of any duration is uncomfortable. I hope that our members recognize that we are only 24 hours from when we were first able to safely assess the damage before us. Even though it has been 24 hours, we completely understand what is needed to restore power. Many of our employees do not have service at their homes as we speak and many cities within our area do not have electric service.

Colquitt EMC's sole mission is to provide service to our members. That is the only reason we exist. I can assure you that we are doing all that we can to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. We appreciate your patience and your prayers.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 8/31 – 3 PM

A Message from Our President/CEO

My fellow members,

Some good news to report. The number of outages is down to 42,500. Georgia Power and Georgia Transmission are continuing work on the transmission lines that feed the two substations that are currently without service. Reports indicate that we should have service to both substations by this evening.

All crews that are here are currently working to restore service. Working conditions have been hard to navigate due to many fallen trees and blocked roads. In addition to the significant number of additional crews that were brought in this morning, we have had the opportunity to bring in even more additional help. We are grateful to get as many working hands as possible. It certainly shortens the outage time for all members, yet there are limitations on the number that we can properly manage in repairing our system.

We recognize that there are questions regarding crews working in various locations. Please understand that work performed on our electric system can sometimes impact service to individuals who are miles away from where the work is being performed.

This event has been very significant to Colquitt EMC, and the damage we have seen is beyond belief. We are grateful to hear of no injury or harm to any of our members during this event.

Once again, we are appreciative of your patience as we work to restore service to all locations. We are growing in confidence with each hour that we can restore service to all members in the next few days.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

President/CEO

Hurricane Idalia Update 8/31 – 9:45 AM

A Message from Our President/CEO

My fellow members,

Colquitt EMC currently has 45,000 meters without power. This is down from a high of 57,000 meters right after the hurricane passed through our service territory. In addition to our in-house crews, we have additional contract and mutual aid crews arriving this morning. So, in addition to the 100 personnel we currently have, we will have 180 more personnel working to resolve the outage.

Some additional good news: yesterday 7 of our 29 substations were without transmission service, but as of this morning that number has been reduced to two substations without service (one in Valdosta and one in Nashville). Georgia Transmission and Georgia Power crews are working to establish service to those two substations this morning. By restoring transmission service to those 5 substations, a significant number of meters have been restored.

Given that today is the first full day of work after Idalia, we expect significant progress to be made today. We appreciate the patience of our members as we navigate the historic amount of damage we suffered. Several roads are impassable and much work has to be performed before we can even begin restoration in a lot of areas. Rest assured, we are working around the clock continually until we have power restored to all members. While we are optimistic about progress, full restoration could take several days.

We understand how frustrating extended power outages are. We appreciate your patience and prayers as we work to restore power to all of our members.

Sincerely,

Danny Nichols

Hurricane Idalia Update 8/30 – 8 PM

As of 8:00 p.m. on August 30, we have 55,140 meters without power. Crews are responding to all affected areas. In addition to 13 Colquitt EMC crews, we have 26 crews from MDR and 8 mutual aid crews.

Due to the widespread damage in our service territory, we cannot give restoration times. However, in an effort to aid with planning, there is a probability that members could be without power for several days.

We thank you again for your patience and prayers as we work to restore power to all of our members.

Hurricane Idalia Update 8/30 - 5:30 PM