Power coming back to Upstate

Crews with Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative are working non-stop to get the power back on in Upstate South Carolina. Extra linemen were brought in to assist with the restoration efforts, explains Terry Ballenger manager of communications for Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative. “We had near 300 people in the field yesterday and we started out with around 10,000 of our members out system wide. Oconee, Pickens, Anderson and Greenville were affected to one degree or another by the outages. From 10,000 were down to about 2,000 that are out now and we are making good progress today getting those folks back on, so we are hopeful we are going to have everything cleared up before this day is over.” Ballenger encourages customers to report outages and downed lines. “Any downed power line people need to stay well clear of that, don’t go close to it at all. If you see it call us, we have a special telephone number you can call to report an outage or an emergency like that. You dial 1-888-BLUE-RIDGE.” That number again is 1-888-258-3743. Crews are waiting to take calls and address reported problems.