10: 30 a.m. Update
Currently, we are down to 3959 members out at 204 separate locations. We have 3506 in Gilmer, 295 in Pickens, and the rest across Cherokee, Dawson, Gordon, Lumpkin, and Murray counties.
Our broken pole count is up to 40; many of these poles have already been replaced.
As previously mentioned, we have several crews who have come in to help us. These crews are from sister EMCs in Georgia and Alabama, as well as contractor crews from PIKE, Tree Line Services and RealTree.
Thank you for your patience. We hope to make good progress today and are thankful for a clear day, although the heat is going to be a scorcher.
As we get the larger outages restored, restoration could slow some because the smaller outages sometimes require the same amount of effort, but result in only 2-3 meters restored. Rest assured that all power will be restored as soon as is safely allowed.