29 Jun Crews work through the night, 300 remain without power
There are currently just over 300 DREMC members, mostly in the Columbia area, without power this morning. Overnight about 100 employees of DREMC and contract crews worked to restore electric service after a long and hazardous day working to rebuild our damaged system, while also battling the weather elements as they worked.
Yesterday’s severe thunderstorm resulted in a total of 157 different outages affecting over 13,000 members. Most of the damage was caused by fallen trees and lightning strikes.
This morning, crews from DREMC’s various districts have been reassigned to those remaining outage areas, many of which are isolated cases. Unless the damage at a location requires an electrician to assist, inspect and pass repairs at a location, DREMC staff predicts that everyone will have power restored today. Weather conditions are much improved, with only a chance of rain in today’s forecast.
“We appreciate your patience as we continue our efforts today to restore power to the remaining isolated outage areas,” says DREMC President and CEO Michael Watson. “Under the circumstances of the severe weather and the extent of the damage to our system and TVA’s system, we have recovered very quickly. I am grateful for the help from our neighbor cooperative, Middle Tennessee EMC, who sent three of their contract crews to assist in restoration efforts yesterday. And I am always grateful for the hard work and dedication of our own employees in emergency situations like this and am very thankful for their safety.”