ATLANTA — Georgia's power providers continue working throughout different parts of the state to turn the lights on after Tropical Storm Zeta shut them down days earlier.
Now, both Georgia Power and the state's Electric Membership Cooperatives are providing updates on their progress.
Georgia Power released a 6 p.m. update that it had restored power to more than 750,000 customers since Zeta. The company currently has more than 4,000 personnel working to restore power to about 55,000 customers who were still without power as of 6 p.m. Saturday. Crews from 14 states are also helping with the restoration efforts.
“We know being without power is difficult and are working to restore power as safely and quickly as possible. We appreciate our customers’ patience and thank the additional personnel from 14 states who are here with us helping get the lights back on,” said David Maske, Georgia Power Storm Center manager.
Meanwhile, Georgia's EMCs continued their work on Saturday and reported power restored to roughly 26,000 customers since 5 a.m.
"Crews have been working non-stop since Thursday to restore service for 400,000 customers who were left in the dark when 70 mph wind gusts from Tropical Storm Zeta tore apart the electric transmission and distribution infrastructure," an EMC spokesperson said.
The organization reports 37,000 EMC customers remain without power in metro Atlanta along with north and northeast Georgia. Additional crews from across Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, and Tennessee are also helping with the efforts.
As for the amount of time some of the repair work is taking, power officials said that, unlike many weather events in recent years, Zeta caused extreme damage to the high-voltage transmission lines and electrical substations that provide power to local EMCs. At one point, 20 high voltage transmission lines were down along with 80 substations.
An EMC spokesperson added that cooperatives have seen historically high numbers of downed trees and power poles after Zeta, breaking records in some regions.
The aftermath has led to a Herculean effort to bring systems back online across the state meaning some are finally seeing power for the first time in days. Others, however, continue to wait.