BrightRidge Continues Recovery Efforts in Wake of Historic Damage From Storm Helene

CIUDAD DE JOHNSON – Recovery efforts are continuing in the wake of storm Helene and tragic flooding in our area. As of 2:15 p.m. Sunday, BrightRidge crews are continuing to work to restore about 2650 outages, with 1800 of those outages located south of the Nolichucky River.

Another 850 outages remain in the BrightRidge service area north of the Nolichucky River.

Today, BrightRidge internal and contract crews will be concentrating on the 850 remaining outage areas north of the Nolichucky River, including Johnson City as well as Washington County and Sullivan County. BrightRidge is tentatively targeting restoration for areas north of the Nolichucky River by mid-morning Monday if all goes well.

BrightRidge Engineering and AMI staff will be in the areas south of the Nolichucky doing assessments throughout the rest of the afternoon Sunday to develop a plan and determine what work will be required before power can be restored in the area.

BrightRidge is just now getting access to some locations and it is evident that these communities and neighborhoods have been extremely hard hit by Helene.

We continue to coordinate efforts with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) related to work south of and just north of the Nolichucky River to coordinate access and additional road clearance if needed.

We hope to begin work south of the river on Monday, as assessments are completed by staff.

We encourage BrightRidge customers to donate however possible to recovery efforts. We would also like to warn the public that all unnecessary personnel should stay away from areas just north of the Nolichucky River to allow unhindered access for those directly engaged in recovery operations.