UPDATE SOUTHERN RIVERS ENERGY--MONDAY

As of 5:30 SRE has 13,114 accounts without power across all nine counties. Crews will continue restoration efforts as soon as they have rested and conditions are more favorable for making progress. With roughly 80 percent of our system down, this will be a lengthy restoration process.

Georgia’s EMCs reported a total of 375,000 members without power earlier today. Crews will have to assess the damage in the light of day tomorrow but it will be time and labor-intensive with so many downed trees that have to be cleared before trucks can even get to affected areas.

Due to the degree of damage, EMCs will be joined by hundreds of additional line workers and right-of-way crews from Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and crews from as far away as Iowa, Illinois and Oklahoma.

The cooperatives are providing assistance through mutual aid agreements between the nation's nearly 1,000 electric cooperatives, which help one another during natural disasters, including power restoration efforts.

During restoration, EMCs caution members to be mindful of the following safety measures to ensure the safety of the public and EMC personnel:

Do not try and remove trees or limbs that have fallen onto power lines.

Continue to use caution and stay away from downed power lines. 

This is especially true in wet situations and even more so with standing water as a result of this storm. 

Updates will resume tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Stay safe and thank you for your patience.