Carrollton, GA — Carroll Electric Membership Cooperative is busy preparing to restore power if Hurricane Florence brings down trees and power lines early next week.

“If there are outages, our objective is to get power flowing again to as many Members as safely as possible in the shortest amount of time,” said Jay Gill, Vice President of Communications and Economic Development for the co-op.

Carroll EMC is stocked with poles, wire, connectors, transformers and other supplies frequently used in the restoration process. Vendors have been contacted to be on standby in case additional materials are needed.

Operations supervisors are reviewing crew assignments so they’ll quickly be able to dispatch help to affected areas. The statewide EMC disaster plan has been activated, so the groundwork for getting help from neighboring EMCs is already laid.

“An advantage for us is that EMC line workers all receive the same training,” said Gill. This means they can go to another EMC and work side-by-side with local line workers or work as independent crews.”

Carroll EMC has also contracted tree-trimming and electrical line crews to make them aware of a possible call for assistance. All of Carroll EMC’s employees pitch in during major outages wherever needed, increasing the efficiency of line workers by freeing them from support tasks. The cooperative is also coordinating efforts to facilitate Member communication. In addition to fully staffing the co-op’s call center if needed, automated phone and Internet outage reporting systems are already on-line.

Carroll EMC is a Member-owned cooperative providing electricity to approximately 50,000 homes and businesses. The co-op serves Members in Carroll, Haralson, Heard, Paulding, Polk and Troup counties. This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer. For more information visit the cooperative’s website at carrollemc.com or follow Carroll EMC on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn. Carroll EMC: Community Built. Community Builder.