Linemen Working to Restore 1,100 in Watauga County and Remain on High Alert This Evening

Nov. 26, 2013. (4:45 p.m. update) Line technicians with Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation have restored about half of the 1,100 members affected by an outage beginning at 3:49 p.m. today in the Bamboo community of Watauga County.

BremcoCrews report possible issues with underground facilities as the cause and are working to restore the remaining 700 as quickly as possible. Members should report all outages by calling the cooperative’s PowerLine at 1-800-448-2383.

Employees of Blue Ridge Electric will remain on high alert and prepared tonight and tomorrow for forecasted high winds, ice and severe weather conditions that could lead to power outages.

Members may also check outage status at any time from the cooperative’s online outage map at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com. The outage map includes information about the number and location of outages. Outage updates during severe situations is also available on the cooperative’s social media sites: www.facebook.com/blueridgeemc andwww.twitter.com/blueridgeemc.  

The public is also warned to stay away if they see downed power lines. These lines can still be energized and therefore dangerous or even deadly! Only a trained line technician should ever go near a downed power line. Please report fallen power lines to Blue Ridge Electric as quickly as possible.

Blue Ridge Electric serves some 74,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, Avery and Alexander counties. For more preparation and safety tips, visitwww.BlueRidgeEMC.com.