While the numbers of north Georgians without power continues to fall, some were in the midst of their 3rd day without electricity Thursday morning.
As work progresses on restoring the region's power infrastructure, damaged by tropical storm force winds and falling trees Monday, crews are encountering multiple broken power poles.
"So far, crews have identified 148 broken poles. This number could continue to grow," Jackson EMC spokeswoman April Sorrow wrote in a Thursday morning update. "On average, it takes four hours to replace each pole."
Thursday, 70 additional linemen from North Carolina and Tennessee cooperatives are joining the hundreds already working alongside of Jackson EMC employees, according to Sorrow. The help brings the total to more than 820 working to restore Jackson EMC members' power.
The latest check of Jackson EMC's outage map indicates nearly 7,900 members remained without power, the biggest number in Hall County at roughly 4,400.
Among other EMCs that serve northeast Georgia, Habersham EMC had the highest number of customers without power Thursday morning at about 16,000. Governor Nathan Deal included the county on a stop during his aerial survey of Irma damage.
Amicalola EMC, which provides service in 6 counties, including Dawson, Forsyth and Lumpkin in our area, had about 7,500 members without power Thursday morning.
Georgia Power, which has customers in most Georgia counties, reported 158,000 without power at 10:00 a.m. Thursday. In northeast Georgia, Hall County has the highest number of customers in the dark for the company at about 8,300.
"We know it's frustrating. My power is out myself, but you know, they (crews) are working for everybody in this state to get them back (online)," Georgia Power spokeswoman Holly Crawford said.
In their latest estimate, company officials said they hope to have service to 95 percent of Georgia Power customers restored by Sunday night.
Online outage maps
