As some of the coldest temperatures in quite some time are hitting north Georgia, Sawnee EMC stands ready to meet the needs of its members should any outages be caused by wintery weather.  “Our storm team is closely monitoring weather forecasts and we are reviewing the response plan of our operations staff in order to react quickly to power outages should any problems develop over the next few days”, states Blake House, Vice President of Member and Energy Services.    “We are not expecting any problems; however, we know things sometimes happen such as a car sliding into a pole or a tree falling into our lines, and should temperatures plummet as low as projected, we want to be prepared to respond quickly”, he adds.  Sawnee’s line crews have dealt with numerous winter storms over the years and are well-prepared to repair any weather related damages which might occur.

Sawnee EMC serves over 150,000 accounts through over 9,000 miles of distribution lines throughout North Georgia in a seven (7) county service area.  Sawnee EMC has a very low outage occurrence rate and provides local response to all service interruption events from its office centrally located in Cumming, Georgia.  With a trained and dedicated staff of over 300 professionals, Sawnee EMC is well positioned to address the energy related needs of its members in good and bad weather conditions.

In preparation for possible outages this winter, Sawnee is encouraging customers to stay prepared and follow these simple and effective tips:

• Check your main circuit breaker and outside disconnect switch. If you and your neighbors do not have power, call Sawnee at (770) 887-2363 to report the outage.

• Keep away from downed power lines.  Always assume a downed line is energized and could electrocute you.  Report downed lines to Sawnee.
   
• Report any flashes, explosions or trees in the power lines, which can help our crews locate the cause of the outage.
   
• During cold weather outages, turn off major appliances, water heaters and heating systems.  When power is restored, turn these back on one at a time, in 15-minute intervals.  This helps prevent overloading our system, which could cause another outage.
• Unplug electronic equipment. When power is restored, electrical surges can damage sensitive electronics.  Wait a few minutes after power is restored before plugging electronics back in.
• Turn on a front porch light.  This helps repair crews confirm when your power is restored.
• Close doors, windows and curtains to conserve heat. 
• Never use outdoor grills or camp stoves to cook indoors.
• If you must seek an alternative heating source, please make sure you follow directions, have adequate ventilation and do not leave it unattended – SAFETY FIRST.

Should you experience an outage, please call our office at (770) 887-2363 and report it to a member of our Call Center staff.    If you have Internet access, please visit us on the web at www.sawnee.com and click on the link “report an outage” at our Storm Center page.  Sawnee has interactive tools and maps on the web which provide information on the location of outages along with additional “special” outage messages about the status of the various events.  For those who use a mobile device such as a Blackberry or Smart Phone, use www.sawnee.mobi and click on the “report an outage” link.  All of these tools have been designed to aide our members in reporting outages quickly. 

Got a question about this article or Sawnee EMC, drop us a line at our main office located at 543 Atlanta Road, Cumming, Georgia, 30040, or email us at customerservice@sawnee.com and we will provide you with an answer.