As another severe storm is expected Wednesday, Georgia Power encourages customers to monitor local weather conditions and keep safety first as inclement weather moves across the state. The threat of severe weather, including heavy thunderstorms, damaging winds, hail and possible tornadoes, makes it the third severe weather event expected to impact Georgia in just three weeks.
The company encourages customers to use this time to prepare and reminds customers to remain safe with the following storm tips:
- Before a Storm: Stay aware and check the weather forecast before heading outdoors. Check your emergency kit, unplug major appliances and charge cell phones in case you lose power.
- During a Storm: Take safe shelter inside a sturdy building away from windows and doors. Avoid contact with conductors of electricity – appliances, metal objects and water.
- After a Storm: Never touch any downed or low-hanging wire, including telephone or TV wires that touch a power line. Never pull tree limbs off of power lines yourself or enter areas with debris or downed trees as downed power lines may be buried in wreckage.
While March, April and May are typically the most active months for severe thunderstorms with lightning, hail and tornadoes, severe weather can happen at any time. Customers can become storm ready by taking the following preparedness actions:
- Get Outage Information – Subscribe to the free Georgia Power Outage Alert service to receive personalized notifications and connect with Georgia Power on Facebook and Twitter for helpful information every day, and restoration updates during severe weather.
- Build an Emergency Kit – A well-built kit should contain enough supplies to get you and your family through three days without electricity or running water.
- Downed Tree Safety – Downed trees are usually the cause of an outage after a storm. Never attempt to pull tree limbs off wires yourself. Customers should call 911 or Georgia Power immediately if they see a fallen or low-hanging power line.
- Generator Safety – Never use generators in an enclosed space. They produce dangerous carbon monoxide that can’t be seen or smelled.
- Storing Food and Medicine in an Outage – During an outage, it’s important to know how to safely store your food and medicine. When an outage occurs, move anything that can be frozen into the freezer. A well-stocked freezer can hold its temperature for 24 to 48 hours.
Infrastructure Investment – Reliability and Resiliency
The company continuously invests in infrastructure to increase the day-to-day reliability of its systems and shorten outage and repair time. The company’s use of Smart Grid technology and increased automation in recent years mean an increased ability to more quickly isolate outages that do occur to smaller numbers of customers and reroute power remotely for improved reliability.
In addition, Georgia Power’s operational plans, systems, infrastructure and generating plants are all designed to enhance the resiliency of the network to best withstand major occurrences, such as severe weather events, including tornadoes, hurricanes and extreme heat or cold. Resiliency investments include upgrading transmission and distribution infrastructure across the power grid, including making power lines more durable.
Source: Georgia Power
