10 pm Sunday OUTAGE UPDATE: Crews Continue Working To Restore Power from Heavy Snow Overnight

LENOIR, NC (10 pm December 9, 2018 – OUTAGE UPDATE) — Blue Ridge Energy line technicians continue working tonight and have outages down to 93 members without power as of 10 pm Sunday, after a height of 2,269 as of noon today.

Currently, 51 members are without power in Wilkes County and 42 members in Caldwell County.

The foothill areas of Caldwell and Wilkes counties in the cooperative’s service area received the most damage and outages due to over a foot of heavy, wet snow weighing on trees and limbs, causing them to fall into power lines. Temperatures in the mountain counties in the cooperative’s service area were a few degrees colder, creating a lighter, fluffier snow that left significantly less damage and outages.

The potential for outages tonight remains, as more severe weather is expected this evening.

Full outage restoration will go into Monday due to damage in very remote, difficult to reach locations. Many areas are impassable, and crews are working to reach damaged areas of the system by foot with snow above knee level.  Conditions are also treacherous on many rural roads.

Line technicians began responding to outages at 2:47 am Sunday when issues first began.

Blue Ridge Energy reminds members to report all outages by calling 1-800-448-2383 or by using the Blue Ridge Energy mobile app. Outage updates are available on the cooperative’s live outage map at www.BlueRidgeEnergy.com or on the mobile app.

Blue Ridge Energy serves some 76,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany counties as well as parts of Avery, Alexander and Wilkes counties. Learn more at www.BlueRidgeEnergy.com or on the cooperative’s social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.