For Georgia, Hurricane Michael Wasn’t (Mostly) A Coastal Event
I’ve been covered up today so forgive the brevity of the post. There’s little “news” content here, but more of a placeholder that action is required.
Georgia got hit by a Category 3 hurricane yesterday. I don’t think that’s happened in the last century. The Georgia coast had three very strong storms in the 1890’s (proving Georgia’s Golden Isles aren’t immune, just lucky) to the storms. Hurricane Opal did a good bit of damage in the 1990’s to Atlanta, but if my memory serves it was about a Category 1 storm when it crossed the line from Alabama.
Last night, Hurricane Michael was a Category 3 storm when it hit our port…of Bainbridge. It brought hurricane force winds to a wide swath of South and Central Georgia. Early reports are that the cotton and pecan crops are devastated. There’s significant property damage throughout SW Georgia. Remember just a couple of years ago Albany and other nearby areas were devastated by a series of storms. In some areas this is worse, with the damage spread across a wider field.
We’re primarily a political website and we’re less than 4 weeks from a statewide election. But we’re also Georgians, here for Georgians.
I’ll be making some time in the days ahead to report on the storm’s effects, the progress of the recovery, and the needs our fellow Georgians are facing. If you have time, money, or other resources, start figuring out how you may be able to allocate some of them for help.
A large number of our neighbors are going to need it.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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Agreed. I spent a good bit of my early 30’s on the panhandle and almost moved there. But right now, that’s also where the cameras are. I want to make sure that the folks in rural Georgia that don’t have beach house money are remembered as well. (And yes, I’m aware that most of the rank and file people that live and work in places like Panama City Beach don’t have “beach house money” either, and will also need a lot of help to get life back to normal.)
October 11, 2018
EMCs Conduct Critical Damage Assessment After Hurricane Michael
TUCKER, Ga. – At 3 p.m., EMCs in Georgia are reporting approximately 177,000 members without power primarily in middle and south Georgia where Hurricane Michael landed in the state as a Category 3 hurricane. Outage numbers rose sharply overnight as the storm traveled north and across much of the state, causing some of the worst destruction in the southeast.
Unlike recent storms, Hurricane Michael severely damaged transmission assets such as high voltage transmission lines in addition to distribution assets. For that reason, Georgia Transmission Corp., in conjunction with local EMCs, has spent much of the day conducting an extensive damage assessment of Georgia’s power grid.
The findings are sobering. Crews are discovering catastrophic damage to the electric infrastructure–the likes of which has not been seen in decades. There are multiple high voltage transmission lines down as well as 68 substations out of service.
With this much damage to both the transmission and distribution system, EMCs warn there will be extensive delays in total restoration. Consequently, some EMC members in the most damaged parts of the state—especially those who are medically fragile–may wish to make temporary arrangements.
Earlier this week, EMCs in the path of Hurricane Michael called upon crews and line workers across the state as well as nearby states to aid in the restoration effort. Right now, crews and equipment have already arrived or are expected from Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The list of states sending help is likely to increase in the days ahead.
During the recovery and restoration effort, EMCs want to remind the public to avoid downed power lines and assume that any downed lines are energized and extremely dangerous and could be fatal depending upon ground conditions. This is especially true in wet situations and even more so with standing water as a result of this storm.
From the AJC 6 hours ago:
“Greg Calhoun spent Thursday morning clearing a path through pine trees and pieces of his neighbors’ houses so he could confirm what he’d already strongly suspected: Hurricane Michael took his life’s work.
The 55-year-old southwest Georgian, who had accumulated thousands of acres of crops near the Alabama border, said he and many other farmers will now have to start over. That’s if they don’t go out of business first. He sounded both amazed and desperate at the unprecedented storm and the feeling of “being in a tornado for hours.”
The damage is so widespread that Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black believes it will “definitely” be a $1 billion hit to the state’s economy. To recover, Black and farmers said the federal government must come through with assistance — and a lot of it.
Calhoun’s description of the aftermath explained why.
“There ain’t a house that ain’t got shingles tore off of it, or trees on it, or windows blown out,” said Calhoun, who lost most of his cotton and timber, as well as his great-great grandfather’s barn. “Every chicken house I’ve been by today is torn down. Power poles are snapped off. I ain’t talking about a small area – this whole area.”
https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-fears-billion-crop-damage-farmers-report-devastation/IfQZJm2unNiEitzAMUuiuI/
The pecans got blown off my trees as well. Most needed another month to mature since we had a drought here in east Georgia which slowed them down.
Glad friends from Climax, a village of a few hundred less than 10 miles east of Bainbridge, heeded warnings and left Tuesday night to stay with us in metro Atlanta.
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Georgia Power map indicates about 10,000 customers without power in Decatur County. The County’s population is only 27,000. Looks like they’ll be staying the weekend.
EMCs HAMMER AWAY AT OUTAGES
TUCKER, Ga. – At 3 p.m (10-12-18)., electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) are reporting 129,000 members without power, down from 210,000 at the peak of Hurricane Michael. Since late Tuesday, EMCs have restored electric service to 81,000 members.
During the past 36 hours EMCs have made great strides to repair and in some cases completely rebuild portions of the transmission and distribution network. Hundreds of EMC linemen are focused on power restoration at this time, from Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina thus far and may increase in the days ahead.
EMCs stress that the damage inflicted by Michael was some of the worst destruction Georgia has seen in decades, and the restoration process will take multiple days, up to a week and possibly more in some rural areas of the state.
The severity of damage to transmission assets is making restoration efforts especially daunting. High voltage transmission lines and substations – the critical link between power generation and EMC distribution – must be repaired before lights can come back on in homes, businesses and other local facilities. At the height of the storm nearly 100 substations serving EMCs were out of service. This morning that number had been cut in half. More than 30 transmission lines are still being addressed.
Georgia Transmission Corporation has crews across the impacted area working diligently to restore transmission facilities. Accessing these essential assets is proving difficult because of the magnitude of the impacted area across difficult terrain. In many cases crews are literally cutting their way in through fallen trees and debris because the soft soil in the primarily agricultural land in rural areas impedes heavy equipment. Drones and helicopters are being used to aid the recovery.
EMC crews are also encountering thousands of downed trees and limbs and hundreds of damaged or destroyed power poles and power lines. The average time to replace a broken distribution pole is four hours, which is a good example of why restoration times have been and will be lengthy for many members.
Oct. 13, 2018
EMCs Continue Challenging Work to Restore Power
TUCKER, Ga. – Approximately 110,000 customers of Georgia’s electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) remain without power as of 4:45 a.m. today, down from 210,000 in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Michael, which swept through Georgia on Wednesday.
While the restoration of power to 100,000 customers represents significant progress, the state’s EMCs emphasize that the process could take several more days, particularly in the hardest-hit areas of Middle Georgia and Southwest Georgia.
Unlike previous storms, Hurricane Michael caused serious damage to the high-voltage transmission lines and substations that supply power to the EMCs, which distribute the electricity to customers. The damage to the supply side of the electrical grid from Michael is more extensive than with any other storm in decades and will take longer to assess and repair. These transmission lines and the substations that are out of service must be repaired before electricity will be available to run through residential distribution lines. Georgia Transmission Corp. is working with local EMCs to get the power grid back to full function.
EMCs in Georgia are receiving assistance from crews that came from other parts of Georgia and from Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. Hundreds of line workers are working around the clock to repair lines and poles. Every effort is being made to restore power as quickly, effectively and safely as possible.
Because of the extended time it will take to restore power in this complex situation created by Hurricane Michael, EMCs are advising those who are medically fragile or have other critical electricity-dependent needs to consider temporarily seeking shelter in other parts of the state that were less affected by this storm.
As always, the public is reminded to avoid downed power lines, which still may be energized and extremely dangerous, even deadly. They are especially hazardous when in or near standing water.
From Ronnie Just of Georgia Power’s FB page:
As of 8:15 PM (10/14/18) ~77K customers without power across Georgia — [Georgia Power 18K/EMCs 59K]…this will be my last regular update. The region from Bainbridge to Albany continues to be the zone with lingering outages, and all resources are now aimed there. More than 7,000 restoration crew members have been living out of quickly erected tent cities (pictured) or far flung hotels…so power is returned to South Georgia. Once energized, the longer recovery can begin. Thanks for your thoughts and concerns for the superheroes that are making this happen.