Thursday, September 29, 2022

Randolph EMC activated its Storm Response Plan in anticipation of impacts to its service area in Randolph, Moore, Montgomery, Chatham, and Alamance counties. Ian made landfall over Florida as a Category 4 hurricane.

“Our crews stand ready to respond to the effects of this tropical event,” said Randolph EMC CEO Dale Lambert. “I encourage our members, also, to make preparations.”

Friday, September 30, 2022

Ian made its second U.S. landfall, this time near Georgetown, S.C., as a Category 1 Storm. Members began to experience scattered outages as weather conditions deteriorated.

The remnants of Ian brought strong wind gusts, bands of heavy rain and isolated flash flooding to central North Carolina.

By 7:30 p.m. Friday, REMC reported 117 outages affecting over 3,800 members. Crews worked through the night to restore power.

Saturday, October 1, 2022

At 9 a.m., REMC crews worked to restore power to approximately 3,879 members in all 5 counties of the service area. Line personnel battled fallen trees and downed power lines amid saturating rains and strong winds.

Additional line personnel from sister cooperatives Union Power and Edgecombe-Martin County EMC in North Carolina, along with personnel from Sumter Utilities in South Carolina, arrived early that morning to join REMC line crew and contractors in restoration efforts.

Lineworkers made significant progress throughout the day to restore power to members.

By 10 p.m., REMC reported only 75 members without power. Crews planned to work through another night to complete complex repairs caused by storm damage.

By late Saturday, Ian had tracked out of the REMC service territory and into Virginia as a significantly weakened system.

Sunday, October 2, 2022

By the early hours of Sunday morning, all members in Randolph, Moore, Montgomery, Chatham and Alamance counties had their power restored.

During the Ian event, Randolph Electric experienced a total of 268 separate outages, affecting 10,736 meters. This meant that the storm impacted about 32 percent of REMC’s members.

“I am happy to report that as of 5:19 a.m. today, 100 percent of our members have power,” said Dale Lambert, CEO. “I am proud and appreciative of our line personnel and support team for going the extra mile for our members.”

“About one-third of our members experienced an outage from this storm. As always, our team worked as safely and efficiently as possible to repair the damage,” continued Lambert.