‘We’re as ready as we can be:’ Georgia Power spokesman as Hurricane Michael takes aim on state

Georgia Power Co. officials in Columbus are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best as Hurricane Michael pounds the Gulf Coast and begins to move inland.

“We are going to hold everybody we have here until we see what happens in Columbus,” Georgia Power West Region spokesman Robert Watkins said at midday Wednesday.

In Columbus, there are more than 225 personnel working distribution, transmission and various support groups, Watkins said. That includes 131 people who have been brought in from outside Columbus.

Hurricane Michael was a Category 4 storm with winds in the 150 mph range as it approached shore near Panama City Beach, Fla.

As the storm moves into Georgia, heavy and steady rain and wind is expected to start locally sometime between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., with winds beginning to gust toward 40 mph. Wind gusts could remain in the 35 mph-plus range overnight, dying down somewhat by daybreak Thursday morning. Between 2 and 4 inches of rain are expected.

Georgia Power has no way of knowing how many customers in the Columbus area will lose power, but the personnel to get the power back on is in place, Watkins said.

“We want to see what it does here first and see if there are any major outages in our area,” Watkins said. “We are as ready as we can be for something like this.”

The Southern Company, which owns Georgia Power, Gulf Power and Alabama Power, opened its storm center in Atlanta to monitor Hurricane Michael. The company has also gone into its Storm Evaluation Restoration Program, in which employees move into storm-related jobs.

The company is planning for heavy damage along the Gulf Coast.

“Georgia Power will take care of Georgia folks before we move into Florida,” Watkins said.

Staff writer Tony Adams contributed to this report.

This story was originally published October 10, 2018 at 1:02 PM.