75 PERCENT OF MEMBERS HAVE POWER; BROKEN POLE COUNT HITS HISTORIC NUMBER

PICKENS, South Carolina — Approximately 6,500 Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative members had their power restored Wednesday.
As of Wednesday night, over 46,000 members have had their power restored since Tropical Storm Helene ripped through our region. At the time of this release, 17,608 members were without power, representing approximately 24 percent of our membership.
Further field assessments today confirmed 710 broken poles. That figure was at 625 broken poles Tuesday night. The continued discovery of damage shows how crews make it further into a job only to find more damage, extending the restoration process. This continues to be the most we’ve ever recorded in our 84-year history. On average, it takes a four-man crew about 3-4 hours to replace one broken pole. Many are being replaced now in areas inaccessible to machinery. This means the poles must be dug and placed by hand, just like they were in 1940 when the cooperative was formed. Some spans of line have as many as 10 broken poles on them. This will be a long process.
On Thursday BREC will provide an update on the current number of personnel in the field, which is well over 500 workers.
Please see the attached restoration overview for specific areas from today.
Below are the members restored today by county:
Anderson: 1,475
Greenville: 82
Oconee: 3,082
Pickens: 1,901
Below are the remaining members without power by county:
Anderson: 1,674
Greenville: 3,106
Oconee: 5,561
Pickens: 7,224
Spartanburg: 43
On Wednesday, our sister station 101.7 WGOG’s Dick Mangrum spoke with BREC’s Riley Morningstar…