Throughout the storm, a total of 3,862 member-owners in 4,691 locations in our five-county service territory experienced an outage.

Randolph Electric employees watched the track of Helene as the tropical storm gained strength in the Gulf of Mexico. By Thursday, Sept. 25, the REMC service territory witnessed heavy rainfall.

On Friday morning, Sept. 26, Helene began to wreak havoc. Throughout the storm, a total of 3,862 member-owners in 4,691 locations in our five-county service territory experienced an outage. REMC crews worked through the day to restore outages, with final restoration of all members on Friday evening at 10:13 p.m.

While our crews were able to aid our members relatively quickly, members of other cooperatives in the western part of the state found themselves in a disastrous situation.

Torrential rains in the NC mountains preceded the arrival of the hurricane eyewall. On Friday, Helene’s incredible winds and downpours ripped trees out of the ground and swelled rivers and creeks to record heights. In some places, rainfall totals climbed above 30 inches over 3 days. Such rapid accumulation caused flooding and landslides that wiped out towns, homes, businesses and road networks throughout the High Country. In addition, hurricane-force winds brought down cell phone towers as well as electric grid infrastructure.

After completing repairs to our portion of the grid, REMC crews stood ready to support their sister cooperatives. On Friday evening, Randolph Electric dispatched seven crews to aid members of Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation, based in Dobson, NC. These crews included REMC lineworkers in addition to contractors from Pike Electric and Branching Out.

Through Monday, Sept. 30, REMC crews worked to restore power for over 12,000 member-owners of the Surry-Yadkin electric cooperative in western North Carolina.

After every member in Surry-Yadkin received power, REMC crews headed to Rutherford EMC. As of this writing in early October, REMC crews are also supporting the restoration of members in French Broad EMC, and we anticipate that our crews will continue to play a important supporting role in building back the electric infrastructure of Western NC.

The spirit of cooperation among remains strong as electric cooperatives all over the nation reach out to support our sisters and brothers who have suffered so much in the wake of Helene. We ask our members to keep the victims of this storm in your prayers, and we thank you for your patience through this and every storm that our team has faced and will face in the future.