BrightRidge continues disaster assessment and recovery

JOHNSON CITY — BrightRidge continues disaster assessment and recovery efforts after historic rain, wind and flooding from Tropical Storm Helene washed out bridges and roads while felling dozens of trees and power lines throughout the service area Friday.

As of 6:30 p.m., it is not possible to even assess all the damage, particularly in south Washington County, where bridges and roads have been completely washed out or otherwise rendered impassable due to high water levels.

In areas of the BrightRidge system not directly impacted by flash flooding, dozens of trees, power poles and power lines also have fallen.
As this is a historic and extensive weather event, elevated outage totals will persist through the weekend and into next week, and possibly beyond in heavily flooded areas where road infrastructure has been destroyed.

All available BrightRidge crews and contractors will continue working as safely as possible, where possible, to restore power quickly.

In general, electric restoration work beings first with restoring power to substations to reenergize the lines to serve as many customers as possible as quickly as possible. From that point, crews will then begin to move into neighborhoods and restore smaller outages. But restoration will be a slow process.

About 12,674 customers remain without power at 6:30 p.m. Friday, down from more than 33,000 outages at the most severe point during the storm. Again, given the pervasive damage and associated impacts, some customers will not have service restored until the weekend and possibly into next week. In some of the most serious cases, restoration may not be possible without extensive utility and road reconstruction.

As always, customers should stay well away from downed power lines. Do not attempt to touch, handle or move downed lines.

Further, BrightRidge Broadband services have also been impacted in this event. Restoration efforts will continue with the Broadband system as power is restored and conditions permit, with additional contracted personnel to be deployed.

People with medical charging needs should seek additional battery back-ups or alternative charging locations. Given the historic and extensive nature of the damage throughout the system, system restoration estimates will not be available.

If it is necessary to travel in the area, please do so with the utmost caution and be alert for the possibility of encountering downed trees and power lines as well as damaged bridges and roads. Do not attempt to cross water-covered roads and be aware that emergency responders, road crews and other responders as well as utility repair crews will be working through the weekend.

For the latest outage update information, please visit the BrightRidge outage map at www.BrightRidge.com/electric-outage-map/
Outages should only be reported through the SmartHub mobile application or by calling BrightRidge at 423-952-5000 and selecting option 1 from the automated phone menu.