When will power be restored in GA? Some may be in the dark until Sunday, officials say
It could be days before power is restored to nearly 1 million Georgians left in the dark by Tropical Storm Zeta.
Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility provider, said it is working to get the lights turned on and expects to have power restored to 95% of customers by Sunday after Zeta brought heavy rain and damaging winds to the Peach State, causing massive outages.
As of mid-day Friday, the company said it has restored power to more than 615,000 customers since the storm rolled in Thursday, adding that more could have their lights back on before the weekend.
“Earlier, our automated outage alert system issued an estimated restoration time to customers in error,” Georgia Power officials said in a Twitter post Thursday. “While we expect power to be restored to 95% of customers impacted by Hurricane Zeta by Sunday night, we expect the great majority of customers to be restored before then.”
Apologizing for the confusion, the company urged customers to be patient as crews respond to outages statewide.
Zeta, which made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane Wednesday in Louisiana, caused down trees and power lines across Georgia. Outages from the storm impacted everything from work and virtual learning to early in-person voting, McClatchy News reported.
“Damage includes broken poles, damaged transformers and numerous spans of wire down,” utility officials said, according to WSB-TV. “Teams are also experiencing challenges including downed trees and roads blocked that must be cleared to enter certain areas.”
As of Friday afternoon, Georgia Power’s outage map showed widespread disruptions in service stretching from the metro-Atlanta suburbs of Marietta, Kennesaw, Sandy Springs and Duluth to south of the city in McDonough, Milledgeville and parts of Columbus.
Customers also took to Twitter to voice their frustrations.
“Just got a text from #georgiapower saying the estimate for my power to come back on is 11:00 PM — on November 1,” one customer tweeted.
“I realize that there have been a lot of outages in the Atlanta area, but this update is unreal,” wrote another. “My power has already been out for 18 hrs and the update is now for Sunday night??!!! Um, this is not ok. Please, please, please, get the power on sooner!!!”
On Friday afternoon, Georgia Power said crews are working around the clock to resolve outages in northeastern and northwestern parts of the state.
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 12:38 PM with the headline "When will power be restored in GA? Some may be in the dark until Sunday, officials say."